CHARLOTTE, NC - Boswell, Pa., resident William “Will” Price was crowned winner of the 3rd Annual Dole Great American Banana Challenge after peeling and eating an event-best 12 bananas in the 125-second competition on Aug. 22, displacing two-time winner Leo Sun, who held the previous record of 11 ½ bananas.

Leo Sun of Latrobe, Pa., won the first two years of the Challenge, which is one of the signature events of the Great American Banana Split Celebration, an annual three-day festival in Latrobe marking the invention of the iconic dessert in 1904. Dole Food Company created the peel-and-eat contest in 2024 to honor its 125th year in the banana business and has committed to sponsoring the competition through at least 2027.

According to Banana Challenge rules, the banana fan who peels and eats the most DOLE® Bananas on the Robindale Main Stage of the Great American Banana Split Celebration receives the Dole Banana Challenge Championship Belt, created by Latrobe-based Wildcat Championship Belts, Dole, and event organizers exclusively for the competition.

Price, 40, said that he told his girlfriend before Saturday that he would propose to her if he won the contest.

The Great American Banana Split Celebration has been an annual destination for banana and dessert fans since 2013, when the Pennsylvania Historical Society unveiled a marker at the downtown Latrobe site where the banana split was invented. Dole helped organize the inaugural celebration in conjunction with Aug. 25’s designation as National Banana Split Day, and sent Bobby Banana, the company’s 7-foot mascot and healthy-eating ambassador, as representative.

“Dole Food Company is proud to have been part of the Great American Banana Split Celebration from the very beginning, and to watch it grow from a small regional event into a weekend destination that now draws thousands of banana fans every year,” said William Goldfield, Dole’s director of communications, in the recent release. “The team behind DOLE® Bananas congratulates William Price for not only taking home the Dole Banana Challenge Championship Belt in 2026 but setting a world record in the process.”

Banana split lovers wanting to celebrate with a more wholesome version of the famous dessert are directed to Dole’s Berry Banana Splitz and Honey Pomegranate Banana Split recipes, and to a how-to blog post by Melanie Marcus, MA, RD, Dole’s health, wellness, and communications manager.

This year, Dole is also spotlighting its Pineapple Dole Whip® Sundae, a new recipe created for last month’s Dole Whip Day that combines the iconic Banana Split with the best of a Dole Whip®.

SALINAS, CA - As fresh produce businesses navigate tight margins, complex operations, and growing demands for speed and visibility, the technology behind those operations can make all the difference. In its latest blog, Famous Software explores the return a purpose-built ERP can deliver, from everyday efficiency gains and stronger decision-making to scalability and long-term growth. Read on for the company’s perspective on why the value of an ERP investment can extend far beyond the initial technology upgrade.

There is rarely a perfect time to make a major technology investment.

There will always be another season to get through, another customer priority to address, or another reason to make the systems you already have work a little longer. But when it comes to ERP, the more important question isn't whether your current system can keep going.

It's what could your business accomplish with the right technology in place?

For fresh produce companies facing tight margins, complex supply chains, evolving customer requirements, and pressure to do more with the resources they have, that distinction matters.

The right ERP isn't simply an expense associated with replacing software. It's an investment in how efficiently your business operates, how confidently your teams make decisions, how easily you can scale, and how prepared you are for what's next.

When the right technology begins improving those areas across the organization, the return can add up quickly.

Key Takeaways

• The right ERP can accelerate ROI by improving efficiency across everyday, high-volume processes—not just by reducing IT costs.
• Industry-specific ERP can shorten the path to value by supporting the workflows and complexities of fresh produce without extensive customization.
• ERP ROI extends beyond cost savings to better decisions, scalable growth, automation, and future innovation.

Why ERP ROI Starts with Operational Efficiency

In fresh produce, small inefficiencies rarely stay small.

An extra manual step in order entry. Time spent reconciling information between systems. Data entered twice because two systems don't communicate. An exception that requires multiple people to track down an answer.

Individually, these may seem minor. But when they happen transaction after transaction, shipment after shipment, and season after season, the impact adds up quickly.

A modern ERP brings critical business processes and information together. Automation can remove repetitive tasks, standardized workflows can reduce unnecessary steps, and connected information can help employees spend less time looking for answers.

That's where ERP ROI begins: not necessarily with one dramatic savings event, but through improvements that happen every day across the business. For a high-volume produce operation, even incremental productivity gains can become meaningful when they're repeated thousands of times.

Cabefruit Produce experienced this firsthand after switching to Famous Software. A process that once took two to three minutes per invoice was reduced to just 10 seconds. On a single invoice, that difference may seem small. Repeated across hundreds or thousands of transactions, however, the time savings—and the opportunity to put those resources to better use—can become significant.

How Better Data Drives Better Decisions—and Greater ERP ROI

Efficiency is only one side of the return. The other is what your business can do when people have better information at the moment they need it.

Produce companies make decisions every day that affect inventory, margins, customer service, production, logistics, and profitability. When information is spread across spreadsheets or disconnected applications, employees spend valuable time assembling the picture before they can act.

The right ERP creates a shared source of operational data. Sales can see what's available. Operations can understand what's moving. Finance can access more consistent information. Leadership can gain greater visibility across the business.

As the produce industry becomes increasingly data-driven, having the right information at the right time is becoming even more important.

That can mean identifying an issue earlier, responding to a customer faster, spotting a margin opportunity sooner, or simply making a decision with greater confidence.

Those benefits may be harder to capture in a single ROI calculation, but they are no less real. Better decisions made repeatedly across an organization can have an impact that extends far beyond the original technology investment.

See the blog here for the full details.

NOGALES, AZ - The Southeast Produce Council’s Southern Innovations is fast approaching, and the timing couldn’t be better for IPR Fresh and its upcoming Mexico hothouse season.

With year-round hothouse programs that keep the company supplying a full line of colored hothouse bell peppers and cucumbers, Mark Munger, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, took some time to tell me about what the company has in store for attendees and beyond.

“We are excited about the opportunities ahead as we enter the fall Mexico season. One of our key priorities is expanding our direct relationships with retail and foodservice customers. We have built a strong business over nearly 24 years, and we are now placing greater emphasis on developing new partnerships and introducing more customers to the breadth of products, capabilities, and expertise that IPR Fresh brings to the market,” Mark says.

A major focus for the team has been strengthening year-round availability, a process that the company has been working closely with grower partners to accomplish, adjusting farm plans to shift production in several growing regions into the summer months.

“We’re also bringing new growers into our program to expand summer production and create greater consistency across the full year. For our customers, the goal is simple: provide dependable supply and quality regardless of the season,” Mark shares.

Significant investments in production, logistics, and year-round supply capabilities are starting to bear fruit, and now the team is looking to build new partnerships with retailers and foodservice customers who share that commitment to quality and consistency.

“This fall we have also added a new shipping point in McAllen, Texas, giving us a great advantage in efficiently serving customers throughout the central and eastern United States. At the same time, we continue to expand production across our growing regions, including our organic hothouse bell pepper program,” Mark explains. “All these initiatives are part of a larger strategy to build a stronger, more consistent supply platform and give our retail and food service customers more reasons to partner with IPR Fresh. We’re excited about where the business is headed and, perhaps most importantly, about the opportunity to share that growth with our customers.”

Finally, when it comes to the networking opportunities Southern Innovations offers, Mark tells me that the team sees the event as an important opportunity to say hello to old friends and introduce IPR Fresh to new retail and foodservice customers.

“While we have been in business for nearly 24 years, we are putting a greater focus on developing direct relationships with retail and foodservice partners. We’re excited to share what makes our programs different—from our strong grower relationships and product quality to our ability to provide consistent, year-round hothouse supply.”

Leading with the belief that there is significant opportunity to build new partnerships with customers seeking a reliable supplier with an understanding of both product and the demands of the marketplace, IPR Fresh will be ready to connect at booth #149 on September 11 in Nashville, Tennessee.