ELGIN, MN - Honeybear Brands, a leading grower, marketer and developer of premium conventional and organic apples, pears and cherries, announces its fresh-picked crop of Bartlett and Bosc pears will begin hitting retailer shelves in early March through June 1, courtesy of its Southern Hemisphere orchards.

“Honeybear Brands is the leading apple importer from the Southern hemisphere, ensuring retailers have premium conditioned fresh fruit to offer shoppers during the spring and summer months. This pear crop will refresh produce shelves and provide another fruit option for health-eating shoppers,” said Chuck Sinks, president of sales and marketing, Honeybear Brands, in the recent release.

Bartlett pears deliver March 1, with Bosc starting April 1.

With its broad array of orchards in Washington and the Midwest plus its import production in South America, Honeybear Brands provides a turnkey pear and apple program for retailers all year round, executing 100% supply assurance and ensuring the lowest landed cost program.

BAKERSFIELD, CA - Sun World International will bring a partner centric perspective to Fruit Logistica 2026 in Berlin, Germany (Feb. 4-6, 2026), sharing insights drawn from in market campaigns and genetics designed for long term growth.

As Sun World enters 2026 — a milestone year, marking five decades since its founding — the company is placing its focus firmly on the future. This year’s showcase reflects broader global trial networks and a portfolio designed to elevate eating quality, consistency, and commercial value across the industry.

“It’s at events like Fruit Logistica where we step back and look at the bigger growth picture for fruit — what’s driving it today, what needs to change to sustain it, and how can we leverage our decades of connections, innovation, and science to achieve it,” said Bernardo Calvo, CEO of Sun World International, in the recent release. “Our conversations with partners have evolved. They’re focused on how fruit can consistently deliver flavor and value at scale in an increasingly complex global market — and that expectation is guiding our strategy. Our branded portfolio is already delivering results at retail, and our breeding pipeline is built in close partnership with growers and marketers, translating real-world performance into next-generation fruit designed for long term category growth, not short-term volume.”

At Fruit Logistica 2026, Sun World will focus on the ideas and insights shaping growth in the global fruit category, including:

• Fruit That Already Performs at Retail: Sun World will anchor conversations in proven, in-market programs that demonstrate what success looks like today. Drawing from established grape and fruit brands performing at scale, the discussion will reflect real learnings from global retail rollouts and branded programs such as AUTUMNCRISP® — genetics that are already delivering consistent flavor, reliability, and shopper appeal in real-world retail environments.
• What “What’s Next” Actually Means for Fruit Breeding: Sun World will share how its breeding pipeline responds to tangible market needs — such as retailer demand for consistency and differentiation, and the need for varieties that perform across regions and seasons.
• The Category Lift Created by Brand-Led Programs: As the global fruit industry becomes increasingly competitive, Sun World will highlight why branding is becoming essential and how brand-backed genetics can create value across the supply chain. Discussions will explore how modern fruit programs can move beyond commodity dynamics to drive measurable category growth for retailers
  and partners.
• A Partnership Driven Approach: Sun World’s partner conversations will center on long-term collaboration and shared strategies to drive sustainable category growth. These conversations are focused on building durable growth models together — grounded in real-world performance.

“The advancements our company has made in creating some of the world’s best fruit reflects decades of investment in breeding and the deep expertise within Sun World’s global teams. For 50 years, we have steadfast in our unwavering commitment to meaningful differentiation, which still continues to shape varieties in our portfolio. With new fruits such as citrus, mangoes, and stone fruit on the horizon, we’ll continue to diversify our portfolio offerings in ways that elevate the fruit experience,” said Calvo.

Sun World’s reach now spans 18 countries, with licensed partners cultivating proprietary fruit for leading retailers across North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.

Customers, partners, retailers, and media are welcome to experience the company’s full portfolio — including on-site sampling of select brands and varieties — and preview upcoming releases at Hall 25 Stand B-21 during Fruit Logistica 2026.

DALLAS, TX - Monterey Holdings, the umbrella brand for Monterey Mushrooms, Amycel / Spawn Mate, and Monterey Nutra, announced a strategic evolution of its executive leadership team, positioning the company for its next era of growth across its fresh, genetics, and nutraceutical divisions.

The following leadership appointments are effective immediately according to the recent release:

George Haggar returns as CEO of Monterey Holdings. As a current board member and former President of Monterey Mushrooms since November 2023, George possesses a deep, decades-long connection to Monterey dating back to his days as COO of Costa Group in Australia. His vast experience in fresh produce supply chains and operational excellence makes him the ideal leader to build upon the legacy of our founder, Shah Kazemi.

Chris Abbott is appointed President of Monterey Mushrooms and CFO. Chris joined the Company in November 2024, bringing a formidable background in food and agricultural operations and having held executive roles at Organic Valley Fresh, Revolution Foods, and Dairy Farmers of America. He will oversee the fresh division while managing the financial health of the overall enterprise.

Harry Beukelman is appointed President of Biotech (encompassing our Amycel/Spawn Mate and Monterey Nutra divisions). A globally respected leader with over 25 years of experience in agriculture and biotechnology, Harry joined the Company last month following a successful tenure at US Agriseeds and nearly a decade at Monsanto. His expertise in proprietary IP and global commercial strategy will be instrumental in scaling our genetics and nutraceutical divisions.

This leadership team represents over half a century of combined experience in the food and agriculture sectors. Their collective expertise ensures that Monterey Holdings will continue to play a significant role in the global mushroom industry for decades to come.

SEATTLE, WA - Amazon has steadily expanded its grocery footprint over the past two decades, blending online delivery, physical retail, and logistics innovation at scale. Now, the company outlines in this recent release its next phase of grocery investment, centered on faster delivery, store expansion, and a sharper focus on what’s working while making the difficult decision to close Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores—converting various locations into Whole Foods Market stores:

Over two decades ago, we started adding groceries and everyday household essentials to Amazon.com. Today, Amazon is one of the top three grocers in the U.S., with over $150 billion in gross sales and more than 150 million customers shopping groceries each year. Everyday household essentials represent one out of every three units sold on Amazon.com, as customers increasingly look to our broad selection, low prices, and fast delivery to fill their fridges and pantries. This momentum stems from our commitment to continuously innovating on behalf of customers—learning from their feedback and focusing investments where we can meaningfully make customers’ lives better and easier.

Accelerating fast grocery delivery services

Increasingly, U.S. shoppers are turning to online delivery for everyday essentials and fresh food to fit their busy lifestyles. Today, millions of customers in over 5,000 cities and towns across the U.S. can shop online with Amazon for affordable household essentials and groceries, including selection from Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh online, and local retail partnerships like Weis Markets, Winn-Dixie, and Metropolitan Market. Our online grocery delivery service has experienced remarkable growth, and in 2025, we delivered more groceries at faster speeds than ever before, helping get affordable, high-quality groceries into the hands of more customers.

We know that when customers are shopping for essentials, speed matters. In 2025, we introduced perishables into our Same-Day Delivery service, bringing fresh food to millions of customers from coast to coast, with the launch of even more new cities and towns planned in 2026. This service provides customers the option to shop produce, dairy, meat, baked goods, and frozen foods alongside millions of everyday household essentials, electronics, and other Amazon.com products—all delivered within hours and backed by the company's Freshness Guarantee. The convenience of buying fresh groceries alongside a broad array of other merchandise is resonating with shoppers. Perishable grocery sales through this Same-Day service have grown 40x since January 2025, and fresh groceries now make up nine of the top ten most-ordered items in areas where perishable groceries are available for Same-Day Delivery.

Taking convenience even further, we recently introduced Amazon Now, an ultra-fast delivery option we’re testing that brings thousands of essential items, including fresh food, to customers' homes in about 30 minutes or less. This service delivers the same benefits as a traditional convenience store experience, now with doorstep delivery, and is available in several cities.

Bringing Whole Foods Market to more customers

We are also increasing our investment in our physical stores that are resonating with customers. Whole Foods Market, a pioneer and leader in natural and organic foods, has seen strong success since our 2017 acquisition, with over 40% sales growth and expansion to more than 550 locations. Customers are increasingly choosing Whole Foods Market for both everyday shopping and special occasions, as demonstrated by record-breaking customer traffic and year-over-year comparable store growth that is outpacing the broader industry. Accelerating this growth, we are now planning to invest in opening more than 100 new Whole Foods Market stores over the next few years.

We're building on the brand affinity for Whole Foods Market with a compelling new format, Whole Foods Market Daily Shop. This smaller store format is redefining convenience and the neighborhood grocery shopping experience with a curated selection of grab-and-go meals, coffee, and everyday essentials. The format—now in five locations—has quickly become part of customers' daily lives, with shoppers loving how it offers the same Whole Foods Market quality they trust in a convenient, quick-stop location. Based on strong performance, we'll open five additional Whole Foods Market Daily Shop locations by the end of 2026.

Prioritizing our investments

While we've seen encouraging signals in our Amazon-branded physical grocery stores, we haven't yet created a truly distinctive customer experience with the right economic model needed for large-scale expansion. After a careful evaluation of the business and how we can best serve customers, we've made the difficult decision to close our Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores, converting various locations into Whole Foods Market stores. Customers can continue to shop Amazon Fresh online in available areas for fast and convenient delivery. We're grateful to our team members for their many contributions over the years and are working whenever possible to help them find roles elsewhere in Amazon, including across our vast operations network, as we make this transition.

Throughout our operation of these stores, we've gathered valuable insights about what matters to customers. For example, our Amazon Go locations served as innovation hubs where we developed Just Walk Out technology—now a scalable checkout-free solution operating in over 360 third-party locations across five countries. The customer impact has been transformative, from reducing cafeteria wait times from 25 to just 3 minutes at BayCare's St. Joseph's Hospital, to enabling sports fans at Scotiabank Arena to grab concessions in 30 seconds. Millions now simply take what they need and go, without waiting in line. Building on this success, we're expanding Just Walk Out technology to Amazon's own operations, with more than 40 North American Fulfillment Centers using it in breakrooms today, and many more planned for 2026, helping employees maximize break time by grabbing meals without checkout delays.

Continuing to innovate in physical retail

We will continue to invent for customers, including testing new physical store experiences like Amazon Grocery, which we launched alongside Whole Foods Market in Chicago, Illinois, or our ‘store within a store’ experience in the Whole Foods Market in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, where customers can also shop for groceries and household essentials from Amazon. These experiences make it easier for customers to shop our extensive grocery selection, all in one place.

We will also continue inventing on behalf of customers to develop a mass physical store format that brings customers distinctive selection, value, and convenience. Over the coming years, we plan to introduce new store concepts that we think customers will be excited about. For example, we are exploring a new supercenter physical retail concept designed for customers to conveniently shop Amazon’s broad selection and low prices across fresh groceries, household essentials, and general merchandise. Through it all, our goal remains: to make grocery shopping easier, faster, and more affordable for customers.

BAKERSFIELD, CA - The date category has come so far in the last decade, but this time of the year, the fruit’s demand harkens back to its most traditional format.

As Ramadan supply begins to flow in, Atlas Produce sat down with me to discuss why now is the perfect time for buyers to prepare for the holiday with Fresh Energy Medjool Dates.

“Ramadan orders are kicking off this week as volume starts to ramp up after the post-holiday season lull,” Luke Fountain, Sales, tells me. “Making sure we support our retail partners having bigger displays and getting orders in early to coincide with promotions we are doing during this time period has shown a lot of success. Our customers have been very excited with our program and the growth they are seeing.”

In fact, while Ramadan draws traditional, whole Medjool date consumption more than any other period of the year, the extra push has also attracted new customers and broadened the reach of the category.

“We’ve seen 30 percent growth in sales across our retail partners over the past year, thanks in large part to new demographics trying dates for the first time and the great quality of Fresh Energy Medjool Dates,” Luke continues. “We’ve been doing back-to-school promotions and targeting parents, which is really lifting the category for us. Utilizing Ramadan as an opportunity to encourage those first-time date buyers with promos and larger displays is where that all started.”

How do retailers further maximize this upward trajectory? Company Founders Robert and Nicole Dobrzanski discuss spreading date love across the store and how Fresh Energy Medjools helps make this as simple as possible to execute.

“Multiple display points have been a huge success. Pushing customers toward Fresh Energy Medjool's, where they usually are in the produce department, as well as having a larger display case in the front of the stores, has really helped lift sales for our retail partners during this period,” Robert shares.

To complement these efforts, Atlas offers pre-packed shippers, as well as wire-rack displays that fit anywhere in the store.

With the 2026 Ramadan kicking off the evening of February 17, the time is fast-approaching to partake in this date-forward opportunity.

BOISE, ID - Albertsons Companies, Inc. announced that Allison Pinkham will join the Company as Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer effective Feb. 16, 2026.

Allison brings over 25 years of executive leadership and human resources experience to Albertsons Cos. Allison was most recently the Chief Human Resources Officer and Executive Committee Member at Galderma, a global dermatology category leader. In this role, she led the end-to-end people strategy during a pivotal period of growth and transformation, guiding the organization from private equity ownership to a highly successful public company.

“As Albertsons Companies continues its growth and transformation, Allison Pinkham is a proven leader who will play a key role in advancing a strong people strategy, enhancing leadership capabilities, and fostering a vibrant culture that engages associates to help drive the continued successful execution of our strategy to earn Customers for Life,” said Susan Morris, Chief Executive Officer of Albertsons Cos., in the recent release “Allison is a welcome addition to our talented leadership team, with her track record of translating business objectives into forward-looking HR strategies that drive performance, growth and engagement.”

Before her time at Galderma, Allison served as Chief People Officer at Heineken USA as well as in senior HR leadership roles at Boehringer Ingelheim leading teams across the U.S., Europe and Asia. Allison also brings experience beyond HR where she held roles in marketing, management consulting and technology at market-leading companies including Mastercard, Booz Allen Hamilton and Accenture. Allison earned a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech and is active in advisory and nonprofit leadership.

“It is an incredibly exciting time to join Albertsons Cos. at a pivotal moment for the company’s growth and a dynamic time for the industry,” Allison said. “What excites me the most is working alongside dedicated leaders and teams to build on the company’s strong foundation and shape a people strategy that empowers every team member to thrive as they serve our customers with excellence.”

Allison will report to CEO Susan Morris. Allison succeeds Mike Theilmann, who retired from Albertsons Cos. in November 2025.

CALIFORNIA & ARIZONA - Our latest category deep dive ventures in the world of cauliflower, revealing a stable market. Growing regions across California, Arizona, and Mexico are satisfying the category’s steady demand with reliable supply and good quality.

In Santa Maria, California, cauliflower is seeing a steady market with moderate demand. The National FOB Review from January 21, 2026 shows a wide range in price, quality, and condition, reporting a price range of 24.00-28.55.

The state’s South and Central districts have also seen moderate demand, with a lighter supply than the Santa Maria region. USDA’s latest report revealed a steady market, with the following pricing insights: ORGANIC White cartons film wrapped 9s 20.00-41.00 mostly 26.00-27.00 12s 20.00-43.00 mostly 32.00-37.00.

Cauliflower is experiencing a slightly higher market with good demand in Western Arizona growing regions, with a wide range in price. The National FOB Review reported the following: White cartons film wrapped 9s 23.50-32.45 mostly 25.45-28.50 12s 24.50-32.75 mostly 26.45-29.75 16s 22.45-31.75 mostly 24.45-27.75 few 20.45-21.45.

Steady supplies of cauliflower are also coming out of Mexico with consistent pricing.

According to PRO*ACT’s latest The Source report, the cauliflower market is expected to rise slightly as harvests slow due to the heavy rains experienced in November and December.

ANUK will continue to keep tabs on the cauliflower market and beyond, so stick around for more updates.

WENATCHEE, WA - Stemilt always has a plan of action to keep retailers winning at the point of sale. New campaigns and strategic category launches keep the company and its products top of mind, and one of the best places to showcase this expertise is at the upcoming Southern Exposure in Orlando, Florida.

Helping me break down how Stemilt continues to be a supply-side champion is Brianna Shales, Marketing Director.

“Stemilt is continuing to innovate within the pear category, from the new varieties such as Happi Pear® all the way to our supply chain and updated packing lines,” begins Brianna, noting that after a short crop last year, Stemilt is full swing ahead with the pear volume it’s seeing this year. “At the moment, we are featuring our I Heart Pears campaign to help inspire and build retail displays around untapped eating occasions. It provides educational and nutritional information for the pear shopper, and it’s a great way to add pears to your breakfast routine.”

There will be plenty of promotional volume opportunities at retail, Brianna assures me.

Another way Stemilt delivers value to its partners is through its EZ band packaging program, which only continues to grow. It offers a paper-based, convenient solution to retailers and consumers, and it’s available across the company’s organic apples and pears, as well as club varieties.


“New this year is the addition of the conventional pear pack!” Brianna adds.

Another shining star of Stemilt’s portfolio is its cherry program. Although it doesn’t yet have definitive information regarding the cherry crop from California or Washington, it’s looking forward to discussing cherries with retail partners at SEPC.

“We have the longest cherry season of the year, starting in California and finishing in Washington in September,” Brianna notes. “Stemilt is super optimistic about building off the success of the Kyle’s Pick® program. This follows a robust selection process for an ultra-premium experience and a unique SKU for the category. We are also looking forward to another great season with the A Half Mile Closer to the Moon® brand. These cherries are our latest offering from high altitudes and a great way to finish out the season.”

The cherry season will also bring new packaging designs across the company’s cherry program.

“It’s about working with retailers to ignite the impulse shopping buys,” Brianna explains.

The company’s flagship apple program will also be spotlighted at the show, with emphasis placed on Cosmic Crisp® and Granny Smith as potential category drivers this season.

“Cosmic Crisp continues to develop within the category and has quite a bit of potential to rise as a premium apple in the industry,” Brianna tells me. “There’s a lot of opportunity in bulk Cosmic Crisp. Granny Smiths will be top of mind, too, especially as we move into March. They provide a great opportunity to enhance the green theme of St. Patrick’s day and bring home the baking bug as we roll into Easter. Lil Snappers® has also been a key brand and portfolio for us and helps drive convenience for the shopper by offering multiple varieties and organic opportunities.”

In order to learn how to leverage Stemilt’s impressive portfolio, stop by booth #320. You’ll also have a chance to meet David the Magician to see some show-stopping tricks!