SOLEDAD, CA - Earth Day is quickly approaching on April 22, and Braga Fresh is using it as an opportunity to celebrate the progress of its ongoing sustainability efforts. The supplier, home of the popular Josie’s Organics brands, has upheld its commitment to harvesting and marketing regeneratively grown crops, trialing a low-soil tillage concept designed to increase the carbon content in the soil.

“We are committed to sharing our successes and failures as we focus on increasing our data set to validate our trial findings,” said Eric Morgan, Vice President, Environmental Science and Resources.

According to a press release, this year is the fourth year Braga Fresh is trialing regenerative agriculture practices to better understand the implications and identify the pieces of the concept that may be applied to current commercial farming practices. This is done to reduce soil tillage utilized by the industry in vegetable production.

In 2023, Braga Fresh increased the total amount of acres regeneratively farmed, harvested, and sold to 70 from 32 acres in 2022. This regenerative acreage produced 17,669 cartons sold to the U.S. market under the Josie’s Organics Brand.

This year, the eco-friendly product will be marketed with the Carbon Capture Farming mark.

Access to recent grant funds over the past year has enabled the company to formalize a study of a regenerative versus traditional farming approach using 15 metrics and seven healthy soil indicators. As the release noted, multiple practices are used to implement the trials, including Agrology soil probe sensors, plant sap analysis, data management, permanent plantings, crop rotation, intercropping, cover cropping, soil testing, and water management technology. All regenerative trails are also grown to meet GMP and LGMA standards.

“Our intent is to learn, adapt, and demonstrate our proof of concept and Salinas Valley farming practices where possible,” Morgan added. “Those changes could reduce our overall CO₂ emissions.”

In celebration of this year’s Earth Day, the supplier is sharing its learnings through a YouTube video series. To dive in, click here!

For more industry news and updates, look out for our little apple logo.

ROCHESTER, NY - Which is the newest United States market to welcome a new Wegmans location? It seems North Carolina is the point of focus as the company continues its southward expansion, introducing a new location in the Charlotte region in 2026.

“Four years after opening our first store in North Carolina, we’re excited to announce that Wegmans is coming to Charlotte,” Dan Aken, the retailer’s Vice President of Real Estate and Store Planning, said in a statement to ABC 13. “We’ve received hundreds of requests from locals asking for a store in their area, and we’ve spent years looking for exactly the right location. We’re thrilled to bring the Wegmans experience to this community.”

Wegmans plans to open the new 110,000-square-foot store location in North Carolina's Ballantyne neighborhood, expanding its presence in the state. The grocer currently has four stores in North Carolina—all located in the Raleigh-Durham area—which have all been open since 2019, according to the source.

As it pushes further south, the new Charlotte location will be Wegmans' southernmost store yet.

Comprising its ever-expanding footprint, Wegmans currently has 111 stores across New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia. Plans are currently in place to expand into Connecticut next year with the opening of a new store in Norwalk.

To keep track of this ongoing retail expansion, keep clicking on ANUK.

BERKELEY, CA - Aldi is throwing its hat into the checkout-free technology ring. Partnering with Grabango, the two launched ALDIgo checkout-free shopping at a Chicago-area grocery store.

“It’s exciting to see a checkout-free capability live in one of our stores, said Eric Traxler, Vice President of IT at Aldi. “Aldi is continuously looking for new ways to be innovative and provide a best-in-class experience for our shoppers, and ALDIgo is a great example of that in action.”

According to a press release, ALDI is the first major U.S. grocery retailer to deploy checkout-free technology in an existing, full-size store. It’s not the only option for checkout in the store, as the retailer has kept a traditional checkout experience available.

Having both seems key, as Aldi’s news comes on the heels of Amazon’s announcement that it would be cutting its Just Walk Out technology from its Amazon Fresh stores. Part of the change was inspired by consumer feedback saying they missed the checkout experience of receiving a receipt and going over savings.

We also posit the question of the efficacy of these technologies—not of ill will, but as a gentle suggestion that technology is not infallible. Companies within produce still note the incorrect implementation of codes at self-checkout, and that technology has been around for years. Will this new system be able to account for human error, or does it have the systems learning capable of improving lost dollars and data?

There are more questions than answers here, but we’ll eagerly await what’s coming next in retail.

OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA - Certain key segments of the Canadian produce industry were included in Canada’s Federal Budget 2024, but the Canadian Produce Marketing Association (CPMA) warns that it’s still insufficient.

“The fresh fruit and vegetable supply chain contributes nearly $15 billion to Canada’s GDP, and supports more than 185,000 jobs in rural and urban communities across the country. We also provide Canadian families with safe and nutritious food that is crucial to supporting their health and well-being,” said President Ron Lemaire. “We urge the government to further build on the efforts in Budget 2024 to make food a federal priority across federal departments, strengthen Canada’s food security, and support a growing, resilient, and sustainable fresh produce sector.”

CPMA did see a number of its recommendations make it into the Federal Budget 2024. According to a press release, these include the following:

• A federal investment of $1 billion over 5 years to establish a national school food program
• Federal funding under the new Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund to accelerate construction and upgrades of municipal waste infrastructure, which is critical to an effective transition to a circular economy
• An adjustment to the Advance Payment Program that sets the interest-free loan limit at $250,000
• Significant investments in innovation and AI adoption to help foster the growth of critical sectors including agriculture
• Funding of $39 million for Health Canada and Agriculture and Agri-food Canada to maintain the pesticides regulatory system and support sustainable pesticide management

As Lemaire noted above, the association was disappointed that some implementations were not made. For example, implementing a financial protection mechanism for produce sellers was again not included in the federal budget.

This tool is one that CPMA has consistently reiterated the importance of, due to its opportunity to address gaps in market stability, financial protection, trade, and food security, with no cost to the government. Bill C-280, the Financial Protection for Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Farmers Act, which would establish a deemed trust financial protection tool, also received nearly unanimous support in the House of Commons last fall and is currently before the Senate.

“Supply chain disruptions and geopolitical and economic volatility have put the produce sector in a more vulnerable position without a financial protection mechanism in place,” added Lemaire. “Bill C-280 has support from associations across the country and Members of Parliament from across the political spectrum. We are hopeful that all Senators will support this important legislation and secure its swift passage in the coming weeks.”

We’ll await further news, so stay tuned to us here at AndNowUKnow.

NEWPORT BEACH, CA - Prepare to be amazed! Fresh Solutions Network’s (FSN) popular Side Delights® brand recently debuted its new Amazables! lineup during the Southern Exposure trade show, and now the convenient and flavorful offering is officially available to order!

"Consumers want a hot, wholesome meal in under 15 minutes, and Amazables! cooks in six minutes and is ready to eat in eight minutes,” noted Kathleen Triou, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fresh Solutions Network. “Amazables! is an all-inclusive side dish, main dish, or hearty snack with on-pack sauces. No pre-washing is needed, and clean-up is a snap! Once cooked, remove the potato from the film sleeve and throw it away in the recycle bin.”

As FSN stated in a press release, Amazables! is a first-of-its-kind, oven crispy-skin style, microwavable No.1 grade Russet potato available with two custom sauces created exclusively by Litehouse®.

The delicious, gluten-free sauces were created to complement the taste of a Russet potato by leveraging top foodservice flavors: Loaded Potato and Buffalo Ranch. The Loaded Potato sauce features traditional steakhouse-loaded baked potato toppings, cheddar cheese, bacon, sour cream, and chives, while the Buffalo Ranch sauce blends the heat of classic Buffalo sauce with the cool tanginess of creamy ranch dressing.

Amazables! potatoes are wrapped in an innovative #1 recyclable metallic material using Krisp Film technology, developed in partnership with NNZ, that “shrinks” around the potato in the microwave, creating a crispy potato skin similar to the oven-baked method. This innovative film material cooks the potato while permitting the steam to escape, allowing the potato skin to crisp up while the potato flesh inside cooks to a fluffy, baked-like texture.

Amazables! is now available in colorful, eye-catching packaging, supported by a comprehensive marketing program featuring branded display-ready shippers; in-store POS support; social media schedule across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn on both Side Delights as well as Litehouse social channels; digital asset availability, and more.

This exciting portfolio expansion caters to an increasing shopper demand for single-serve formats and convenient, microwaveable options.

How will Side Delights continue shaking up the potato sector? Be on the lookout for our next update.

REEDLEY, CA - As California-grown blueberries start making their way to local grocery stores, retail partners need to know the latest information on the category. I touched base with Ryan Howard, North American Sales Manager, to learn how Family Tree Farms puts its domestic blueberry program above the competition.

“Our California production has reached unprecedented levels, thanks to our new plantings of Mountain Blue Orchard (MBO) varieties that have revolutionized the industry in other growing regions,” Ryan notes. “With these varieties now maturing in California, we anticipate a seamless transition from our Mexico production to our California farms. We're delighted to see the success our partners are experiencing with Family Tree blueberries, consistently delivering the world's most flavorful blueberries with that renowned crunch and remarkable size our customers have grown to love.”

Family Tree Farms is harvesting at its newly established coastal ranch in Santa Maria, California, located on the Central Coast.

“Here, we proudly cultivate our proprietary MBO genetics, with harvests typically spanning from February through May. Meanwhile, our ranches in the Central Valley of California are gearing up to commence harvesting in late April or early May, continuing through most of June,” Ryan notes. “Additionally, with the majority of our produce expected to be sourced from Mexico over the next month, we are actively coordinating and overseeing the harvesting process in our Mexican operations.”

The outlook for the season appears promising, with new blocks coming into production.

“As for volume, we anticipate robust availability across our conventional, organic, and jumbo categories throughout the California season,” Ryan remarks. “Demand for our fruit remains exceptional, and pricing continues to hold strong even with the influx of more fruit entering the market. There will be promotional opportunities from late April through May.”

We’ll keep our eyes on the latest crop updates, so stay tuned to ANUK.