BELLEVUE, WA & BAKERSFIELD, CA - Impressed by Universal Irrigation & Supply’s management team, ability to anticipate customer needs, and optimize overall satisfaction, Arable Capital Partners recently announced it is acquiring the company.
A full-service irrigation and supply company, Universal has built its reputation on excellent design and services that has served permanent crop customers in one of the U.S.’s largest agricultural regions for over a decade.
“We realized from the very early stages that working with the Arable team was going to be a good fit. We are all excited to bring the best industry talent and expertise under one umbrella. This will give us the ability to offer our customers a level of service unsurpassed in the industry,” said Jeremy Yurosek, who has partnered with Arable and will continue to operate as President.
Arable said in a press release that Jeremy will build upon the strong legacy his family has created as Universal will be merged with Hydratec and Lodi Pump & Irrigation, both Arable portfolio companies, further expanding the geographical reach of the companies.
“Jeremy and his team have created a reputation of providing consistent, high-quality service and innovative product lines that support each customer’s crop needs,” said Derek Yurosek, Managing Director of Arable Capital Partners.
With over 100 years of combined industry experience, Arable said the team at Universal gives the family-owned company a competitive edge. The combination of Universal, Hydratec, Lodi Pump & Irrigation will allow all three companies to better serve the market with expanded operations, and product offerings.
“The Universal leadership, experience and customer-first philosophy blends perfectly with Hydratec, Lodi Pump & Irrigation and the irrigation platform Arable has invested in,” said Greg Richards, Managing Director of Arable Capital Partners.
AndNowUKnow will continue to report and this and other expanding companies operating and serving the fresh produce industry.
WILMINGTON, DE - The criminal life is certainly not one about learning from your mistakes, it seems. Just days after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized 99 pounds of cocaine from a pineapple shipment, a near identical crime took place—both at the Port of Wilmington, Delaware. The main difference? This shipment was a bit over 100 pounds, not 99.
“This significant narcotics seizure illustrates the importance of learning from experience and the value of collaboration among partners with a shared interest in helping keep our families and our communities safe,” said Casey Durst, CBP’s Field Operations Director in Baltimore. “Customs and Border Protection and our federal, state, and local partners will remain steadfast in our commitment to intercepting dangerous drugs at our nation’s borders.”
In hand with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Delaware National Guard Counter-Drug Taskforce, the CBP grabbed hold of a shipment of pineapples from Costa Rica. And when a Wilmington Police Department narcotics detector dog alerted officers to pineapple cases, the rest was history.
According to a press release, CBP officers then examined the cases, inside of which they discovered strips of vacuum-sealed cocaine packages concealed very similarly to the first load. In total, the agencies found 244 packages of cocaine, a.k.a., a street value of more than $3 million.
“This case illustrates how joint investigative effort and cooperation between agencies directly affects the safety and security of our local communities,” said Capt. Kurt Clarke, Deputy Commander, Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay in Philadelphia. “Through coordinated team efforts we will continue to work together to keep drugs out of our ports and off of our streets.”
So heed this warning, fruit drug smugglers everywhere: you mess with pineapples and you will get caught!
SALINAS, CA - Naturipe Farms knows, to attract and retain the organic consumer, it takes more than just an organic certified product. It’s all about cultivating a brand that fits in with the organic lifestyle—health, convenience, sustainability, ethical farming—the list goes on. To share its commitment to this message with the buying community, Naturipe is headed off to Nashville, Tennessee, for the Southern Innovations Organics and Foodservice Expo, September 6 – 8, 2018.
“Naturipe is focused on sharing our organic story with retail partners. Today’s organic consumer wants to know where their food comes from, and having a family of farmers helps us tell this story,” shared CarrieAnn Arias, Vice President of Marketing, when I asked her about the company’s always evolving organic plans.
As an industry leader in conventional and organic berries, Naturipe is excited to showcase its complete berry patch of organic blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and cranberries, alongside its newer avocado program at the show. But beyond that, there are definitely a few tricks up the company’s sleeves. Think solutions for the organic purchaser, such as value added fresh products, products from the Naturipe Snacks™ line, and new sustainable packaging.
“Growing organic can seem like an uphill battle for many farmers, especially with an industry need for new packaging that reduces costs. We are working on changing this experience and are committed to continuing to test new sustainable packaging that will enhance our organic berry lines for our farmers and our consumer’s experience,” CarrieAnn explains. “For blueberries specifically, we offer the Earth Cycle pulp fiber pint that is compostable, virtually eliminates plastic, and resonates well with organic shoppers. In addition to our compostable packaging, we offer top-seal solutions that reduces the use of plastic by up to 38 percent.”
And for Naturipe, this focus on cultivating an organic-driven lifestyle is not simply latching on to a trend. For over a century, the company has been pushing for ethical and sustainable practices, and it only just the beginning of what’s to come.
“Naturipe carries a one hundred-year tradition of family farmers growing fruit with care,” CarrieAnn tells me. “Our company strives every day to exceed the needs of our growers. Our commitment to ethical farming pushes us to increase organic acreage and continually introduce innovative packaging to the industry.”
The clock is ticking and the Southern Innovations show is just about one week away. Find Naturipe Farms at booth #221 to learn all there is to know about the company’s commitment to organics.
SANTA PAULA, CA - The summer is winding down and back-to-school season is upon us. Consumers might be feeling a bit rushed as the lazy days cool down and shorten, and to help you help them Limoneira is offering some citrus-powered on-the-go inspiration.
This month, Limoneira spokesperson Megan Roosevelt is making the kitchen a less stressful place with healthy, delicious salads that your shoppers can make in advance for the whole family to pair with a simple lemon salad dressing.
This and other recipes offer great fall tips and treats all month long via Limoneira’s YouTube channel, giving you some cross-merchandising inspiration that could in turn inspire your customers.
Homemade Lemon Salad Dressing – Easy to make and delightful on the taste buds
Ingredients:
- 3 tbsp Limoneira lemon juice
- ½ cup olive oil
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp tahini
Directions: Add all ingredients to a small jar and whisk until smooth. It’s as easy as that!
Quinoa Chickpea Salad – The ultimate in plant-based protein, with just enough texture
Ingredients:
- 2 cups baby arugula
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- 1 cup cooked chickpeas
Fiesta Salad – Color! Crunch! Flavor! This salad has it all
Ingredients:
- 2 cups kale
- 1 cup black beans
- 2 tbsp sliced black olives
- ¼ cup corn
- ¼ cup diced carrots
Sesame Cashew Slaw – The ultimate in light yet hearty fare
Ingredients:
- 2 cups shredded cabbage
- ¼ cup diced carrots
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 sliced green onion
- ½ cup cashews
Directions: Add three tbsp (or to taste) of homemade lemon salad dressing to preferred storage container (mason jars work great), and then layer the ingredients with the heavier ingredients on the bottom and the lettuce on top. Top with a lid, and store in the fridge. Enjoy within three days.
For a helpful demonstration, you can watch Megan create the above dishes here. Don’t forget to subscribe–each month Megan will be featuring another wonderful facet of citrus living to showcase the versatility of this fruit category.
Limoneira has also partnered with additional global chefs and mixologists, nutritionists, and beauty lifestyle and green cleaning experts to share their knowledge with the customers of our grocery and food service partners around the world, according to a press release. Their biographies can be found on Limoneira’s website.
For more ways to entreat your customers to make fresh produce integral to their meals no matter the season, keep checking in with AndNowUKnow.
WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has filed an administrative complaint under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA) against Sarita Ranch Provission Inc.
According to a press release, the company, operating from California, allegedly failed to make payment to 16 produce sellers in the amount of $756,913 from March 2017 through November 2017.
Sarita Ranch Provission Inc. will have an opportunity to request a hearing. Should USDA find that the company committed repeated and flagrant violations, it would be barred from the produce industry for two years. Furthermore, its principals could not be employed by or affiliated with any PACA licensee for one year and then only with the posting of a USDA-approved surety bond.
The PACA Division, which is in the Fair Trade Practices Program in the Agricultural Marketing Service, regulates fair trading practices of produce businesses that are operating subject to PACA, including buyers, sellers, commission merchants, dealers and brokers within the fruit and vegetable industry.
In the past three years, USDA resolved approximately 3,400 PACA claims involving more than $58 million. PACA staff also assisted more than 8,500 callers with issues valued at approximately $151 million. These are just two examples of how USDA continues to support the fruit and vegetable industry.
SOUTH KOREA - There is sure to be a new pop anthem hit circulating South Korea’s air waves soon—Fantastic Banana, sung to the same tune as BIGBANG’s Fantastic Baby—after South Korean grocery chain E-mart showcased a new way of selling bananas at retail last week that left the internet—and even some of ANUK’s own—gobsmacked by the ingenuity.
According to a report by ABC 11, E-mart has devised a new way of packaging bananas in order to reduce the amount of brown bananas that end up in waste bins. Laid out in a gradient-like format with varying degrees of ripeness, the chain is selling ‘one-a-day’ packs that include six bananas ranging from ready-to-eat to too-green-to-eat.
While the internet is celebrating the hack, some have raised environmental concerns regarding the amount of plastic used to sell bananas in this way. Optimists still hoping the new format will stick and cross to grocery stores across the seas have suggested shoppers could instead select their own assortment of ripe and under ripe bananas in order to reduce the extra plastic waste.
The one-a-day packs are also suspected to be more costly as grocery staff will presumably need to pick out the fruit each day.
Wow, Fantastic Banana! (I hope I’m not the only one getting a kick out of this reference.)
For more fruit and veg hacks catching our attention around the world, stay up-to-date with AndNowUKnow.
NEWARK, DE - The Produce Marketing Association (PMA), the United Fresh Produce Association, Western Growers, the California Fresh Fruit Association (CFFA) have teamed up to offer the produce industry new workshops focused on Listeria monocytogenes(Lm). Held September 11-12 in Fresno, California, and September 13-14 in Monterey/Seaside, California, the workshops will teach attendees across the fresh produce supply chain to control and prevent Lm.
“Preventive controls to significantly reduce or eliminate Lm is a big challenge in the processing plant environment. Our team at McEntire Produce has found the listeria workshop to be a valuable tool to better understand the complexity in managing Lm and providing practical solutions we can use in our operation,” said Tom Lovelace, Executive Vice President of McEntire Produce, Inc., in Columbia, South Carolina.
The hands-on workshops will be produce-specific, according to a press release, and last one and one-half days each. Both will cover topics that include sanitary design, sanitation best practices, and environmental monitoring. Both workshops will include a combination of breakout sessions, panel discussions, case studies and other learning formats, and the first day will conclude with a networking reception at which attendees can engage with each other, with speakers, and with exhibitors.
Scheduled speakers include sanitary design specialists from Birko, Ecolab and Heinzen Manufacturing International; produce safety expert Trevor Suslow, Ph.D. from University of California at Davis; as well as association food safety leads Bob Whitaker, Ph.D. from PMA, Jennifer McEntire, Ph.D. from United Fresh, and Sonia Salas from Western Growers. Consumer Safety Officer Don Kautter will represent the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
For more information and to register for a workshop, visit the United Fresh, PMA, or Western Growers website. The registration fee is $750 for members of any of the supporting associations, and $995 for non-members. For additional Lm resources, see United Fresh’s Lm guidance and PMA’s listeria resource page.
Produce Marketing Association United Fresh Produce Association Western Growers California Fresh Fruit Association
BAKERSFIELD, CA - As a kid, my grandmother would try to trick me into eating her favorite “popsicle,” better known as frozen grapes. It was her way of sneaking produce into my sugar-demanding diet, and that love she planted has since become a full-on requirement of grapes in my shopping cart.
Western Veg-Produce’s Ross Kirkorian, 3rd generation Bakersfield grape maven, shares on the current market, promotional opportunities, and what sets the company’s program apart from others’.
“The quality, top-to-bottom, is excellent throughout the whole valley,” Ross communicates. “The varieties that are being harvested at this time are the kind that yield large volumes, so there’s a lot of fruit around. It’s certainly a good time to promote.”
Coming from a family with over 65 years in the industry and bringing more than 15 years with Western Veg-Produce to the table, Ross has seen a thing or two in the produce ring. Right now, he sees promotional opportunities as ripe and ready for running.
To offer retailers exactly what they are looking for, Ross tells me that he caters to their merchandising needs with bags that sit up and show off the goods inside—and how can you resist the charm of a bag full of beautiful grapes? Inconceivable.
“This is a great opportunity to keep product moving through the stores. To do that, retailers should put grapes in the front of the stores to keep them in the center of the action. Consumers need quality face-time with our grapes and they like to see promotions,” he shares.
With grapes taking center stage in the produce aisle, I have to know what sets Western Veg-Produce’s apart from others. To this question, Ross tells me the company has exactly what consumers are vying for.
“We have some really great varieties coming up and there will be more promotable volumes in those, as well,” Ross tells me. “The red grapes seem to be what the public wants. They like full color and big size, and we offer that to them with our great quality grapes.”
With so many varieties available and ready to shine brightly at retail, the question is not a matter whether consumers will dive right into grapes, but, instead, how many innovative and exciting ways there are to merchandise and push grapes through at retail. We all know that nobody puts grapes in the corner.
WASHINGTON, DC - There is no rest for the weary. Contentions between the U.S. and Canada continue in the final hours of this week, as the governments seek to arrange a trifecta of trade between the two and Mexico. A deadline for today was set for the two northern-most North American countries to reach an agreement and announce to Congress their plan moving forward. The area of contest is the one our industry knows and loves: agriculture.
After its recent trade movements with Mexico, the U.S. has changed focus to create a better relationship with its northern neighbor. The U.S.’s focus on Canada’s ag policy, which President Trump has argued has been unfair for U.S. dairy, has been a primary point of concern, but Trump has also taken an interest in boosting American farmers in Midwestern states—which have seen a hit since tariff wars commenced between the U.S. and China, Canada, Mexico, and the European Union. With a deal expected to be signed between the U.S. and Canada no sooner than 90 days from now, according to Politico, the future looks bright but tumultuous.
The bumpy ride ahead includes continued talks on Ottawa, Canada’s refusal of the elimination of dispute-resolution panels, Bloomberg reports. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is seemingly unchanging in his resolve to keep the northern country’s dairy system steady. Politico shares that U.S. producers feel the supply management system regulating their dairy exports north of the border have been unfair. However, those partaking in the negotiations between the U.S. and Canada are optimistic that a deal will eventually work itself out, but decision-makers have also been very clear in their determination to stay their course and keep their goals intact.
“We are looking forward to signing the right deal for Canada. But we have all been very clear, we will only sign a deal if it is a good deal for Canada,” Trudeau expressed at an event in Oshawa, Ontario.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland shared with reporters that she expects smoother seas ahead as the two countries inch closer to a deal.
“Canada is a country that is good at finding win-win compromises. Having said that, we will always stand up for the national interest,” she expressed after a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Chief Robert Lighthizer. “We’ll only agree to a deal that’s good for Canada. We’re not there yet.”
South of Canada’s border, Trump remains steadfast in his determination to create a solution for trade.
“Canada’s going to make a deal at some point. It may be by Friday or it may be within a period of time, but ultimately they have no choice,” Trump shared in an interview with Bloomberg. “I think we’re close to a deal.”
As Trump and Trudeau move forward, and the the war on tariffs resolves into a policy treaty for steady trade, how will the ag industry change to shifting demands? AndNowUKnow will keep you updated.
IRVINE, CA - Offering startups the chance to compete for more than $250,000 in investment capital, Western Growers has partnered with S2G Ventures to host the 2018 AgSharks™ Competition. The challenge offers entrepreneurs and startups who are developing innovative solutions in food, ag tech, and agriculture to support the development and growth of their businesses.
“The farmers who grow our vegetables, fruits, and nuts have never faced as challenging of a regulatory climate as they do today,” said Tom Nassif, President and CEO of Western Growers. “It’s now more important than ever to invest in innovation solutions and technologies that will play a crucial role in helping farmers grow more with less. We welcome S2G Ventures as our partner in providing the resources needed to fuel technology that will solve real world problems.”
According to a press release, during Western Growers’ 93rd Annual Meeting in Palm Desert on October 30, 2018, five finalists will be selected to pitch their ideas to a panel of AgSharks, consisting of venture capitalists and fresh produce farmers. Judges will decide on the spot whether and how much to invest, and participants will then have the opportunity to accept the offer, negotiate, or decline.
“We are excited to partner with Western Growers for the second consecutive year in finding the next great set of entrepreneurs delivering innovative solutions to the farm,” said Chuck Templeton, Managing Director of S2G Ventures. “The Western Growers partnership offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to learn directly about the challenges facing growers. We are excited to invest behind innovative solutions that support more sustainable and nutritious food.”
AgSharks premiered last October in a competition that saw Hazel Technologies and AgVoice receive a $2.25 million total investment offer from S2G Ventures. Hazel Technologies went on to raise a $3.26 million Series A round—led by the $2 million contribution that S2G Ventures awarded to the startup during the AgSharks competition. Additionally, the funds from the competition have also played a significant role in enabling the startup to launch 100 pilots with fresh fruits and vegetables growers.
“The outcome of the AgSharks event was a major step forward for Hazel Tech,” said Aidan Mouat, CEO and Co-Founder at Hazel Technologies. “S2G's investment has had great impact in accelerating our business growth and the opportunity to pitch in front of WGA members was invaluable. I think the event is only going to get bigger and better from here out.”
In addition to investment capital, successful entrants will also receive international recognition, mentoring from S2G and WG, and potential access to farm acreage to pilot their technologies.
AgSharks is just the latest Western Growers effort to identify key innovations in the fresh produce industry and support ag tech startups in bringing their technology to market. In 2015, the association noted, Western Growers opened an ag tech incubator—the WG Center for Innovation & Technology—in Salinas, California, to provide startups with the resources and mentoring needed to get their companies and technologies up and running. The Center now houses nearly 50 startups.
Applications must be submitted by September 30, 2018. Good luck ag tech entrepreneurs!