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JACKSONVILLE, FL - Aiming to maintain its values across all operations, Southeastern Grocers (SEG) continues to make advancements in the name of sustainability. The grocer recently released its 2020 Corporate Social Responsibility Report announcing its current achievements and ongoing commitment to fostering stronger communities, offering better products, and doing its part to create a more sustainable planet.
“Our associates, customers, and communities are at the heart of everything we do,” Anthony Hucker, President and CEO, said in the report. “Providing our customers and communities with a shopping experience they can always count on is why we exist—and it’s that commitment to being a trusted retailer that inspires us every day to take actions that will bring about a brighter, healthier, happier tomorrow.”
SEG has committed to fostering an inclusive environment where differences are celebrated and everyone is empowered to be their full, authentic selves. The grocer has launched several initiatives to provide inspiration and opportunities for all community members to break barriers and push for equity. As noted in a press release, the grocer has also launched seven diverse resource groups and implemented training sessions to provide education and help encourage constructive conversations among associates.
Since 2016, SEG has remained committed to sourcing produce from local farms and orchards, whenever possible, to provide customers with the freshest produce while mitigating waste and limiting unnecessary transportation emissions. The grocer is also focused on offering an increased selection of plant-based products that provide a smaller greenhouse gas footprint, in addition to only working with suppliers who keep animal rights at the forefront of operations.
Last year, the grocer recycled more than 74,000 tons of cardboard, saving 1.25 million trees. SEG also follows the Environmental Protection Agency’s Food Recovery Hierarchy to reduce food waste. Increased resource efficiencies through lighting, refrigeration, water use, and beyond is also a top priority to ensure store operations are environmentally responsible for the needs and longevity of the community and the planet.
The grocer plans to continue to expand its commitment to sustainability, people, products, and the planet. To learn more about the grocer’s achievements and goals, please click here.
As we continue to see our industry’s leaders stepping up to the sustainability plate, keep reading us here at ANUK.
RIO RICO, AZ - As we ride the waves that Mother Nature stirs as of late, retailers and consumers alike are leaning on the steadfastness of fresh produce operators around the world to keep aisles stocked and the consumer basket occupied. Fresh Farms is one such company helping to keep its customers at the forefront of fresh, and bell peppers are allowing the team to do just that.
“Markets have been in flux this year due to COVID-19 and weather challenges. Each day keeping us on our toes,” Alan Voll, Sales, tells me. “The market dynamic has changed a lot over the past year and is highly driven by retail for us. Foodservice sectors have been impacted in larger percentages. Right now, we have promotional volumes across our bell pepper program and our focus remains on our retail industry contracts while also maintaining a grower profit regardless of the ups and downs of the market.”
Currently, Fresh Farms is growing its green bell pepper program out of Sinaloa, Mexico. The company’s most recent colored bell program started around January 25 and came on later than normal due to much cooler weather in the region.
Fresh Farms packs and ships green bell peppers as well as red, yellow, and orange bell peppers in both 11 lb and 25 lb cartons. In addition, Fresh Farms also produces 15 lb cartons of elongated red bell peppers.
“Colored bells seem to be holding their own, while green bells are selling well below break-even in terms of our market pricing as of late February. As discussed, the market can change at any time and see FOBs back up to more profitable grower levels,” Alan reflects. “Markets initially started out very high with much lighter supply, as Florida was hit with early weather systems which impacted volumes, but the market has corrected for us and supplies currently exceed demand.”
With the ever-shifting expectations of the day, it is essential to have great partners in your corner—come rain, come shine, or come Mother Nature.
IRVINE, CA - Recently, the Superior Court of California denied motions for preliminary injunctions restraining the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board from enforcing the Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS).
After this ruling, a coalition of agricultural and business groups, of which Western Growers is a part, issued the following statement:
“The health and safety of farm and ranch employees is the top priority for agricultural employers. Throughout California, farmers and ranchers have adapted their operations to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. In addition, agricultural organizations have advocated with local, state, and federal elected officials and agencies to prioritize access to vaccines for farm and ranch employees; individual farms and agricultural businesses have sponsored vaccination clinics, with more already scheduled.”
The statement went on to further explain why the coalition was disappointed by the court’s ruling.
“The court’s decision only complicates the ongoing work by family farms and other essential businesses to maintain safe, plentiful food supplies in the wake of COVID-19. The Cal/OSHA Board failed to justify the need for emergency intervention, despite their own staff report that the emergency standards were not necessary to protect employee health.”
The statement concluded by saying that, “With this decision, the court failed to properly exercise its oversight on this critically important issue, and we are now exploring our legal options to ensure the safe and timely delivery of food and essential services to all Californians. In the meantime, we will work with Cal/OSHA to assure the agency better understands the essential businesses and agricultural operations it regulates, and to inject practicality into the Emergency Temporary Standards as it develops forthcoming policies and guidance.”
The five other associations in the coalition include: The California Association of Winegrape Growers, The California Business Roundtable, The California Farm Bureau Federation, and the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California.
Continue to read AndNowUKnow as we follow along with this ruling in our reports.
TARRYTOWN, NY - Jac. Vandenberg recently called on its retail partners to create the most eye-catching SUNRAYS® grapes displays, and boy, did they deliver. The contest ran across various retailers under the Associated Wholesale Grocers Pearl River division from January 13 through February 6. Retailers got creative with unique displays of the company’s premium SUNRAYS table grapes.
“We could not have been happier with how well the first SUNRAYS display contest went. Greer’s Market Store #19, the display winner, really did an amazing job with the SUNRAYS brand messaging and creativity of their display,” said John Paap, Brand Marketing Manager for Jac. Vandenberg. “It was really enjoyable to see how much fun the stores had with this contest and how they communicated the SUNRAYS message to their customers. We were truly blown away.”
Winners of the contest were selected based on the highest SUNRAYS grapes sales, as a percentage of their total produce sales, and on their marketing efforts. The marketing efforts were judged on category visibility, good visual merchandising, and messaging of the brand, according to a press release.
The contest winners for sales included:
- First Place: Greer’s Market (Store #27) in Hurley, MS
- Second Place: Food Giant (Store #6103) in Tylertown, MS
- Third Place: Greer’s Market (Store #19) in Prichard, AL
The contest winner for best display was:
- Greer’s Market (Store #19) in Prichard, AL
Honorable mentions:
- Food Town (Store #14)
- Greer’s Market (Store #04)
- Greer’s Market (Store #11)
- Food Giant (Store #6103)
“Many thanks to Jac. Vandenberg and SUNRAYS grapes for choosing my display as the winner of their contest. With product as beautiful as SUNRAYS, it’s all about just highlighting their quality and their wonderful program. The win means a lot to me and all of the Greer’s family. We’re excited to show what our produce program is capable of, and this win has helped us do just that,” said April Weeks, Produce Manager of Greer’s Market Store #19.
SUNRAYS grapes were recently launched in December 2020 as an extension to the already successful SUNRAYS mandarins. Jac. Vandenberg partners with select premium grape growers in Peru, Chile, and Mexico to source and pack its SUNRAYS grapes, giving retailers and consumers a consistent grape brand they can rely on from November through July.
“The concept for my display was to really show off the wonderful programs Sunrays is involved in and to highlight those key components for the customers,” Weeks continued, sharing the inspiration for her store’s display. “When a company cares, the customer cares. I wanted everything to be bright and vibrant to meet the beautifully colorful aesthetic that SUNRAYS brings to their packaging and product. I wanted the open window to a vineyard scene to be a focal point to portray the freshness of the grapes as if you’d just picked them from the vine yourself. And finally, I wanted the whimsy of the grape and sunshine mural over top to draw in my tiny customers, the children, who are by far the biggest fans in my department of SUNRAYS grapes.”
Strict quality guidelines are in place including brix, sizing, and overall flavor, which are overseen by Vandenberg appointed quality control teams at origin. The majority of grapes packed in SUNRAYS are proprietary varieties such as Sweet Globes, Sweet Celebration, Jacks Salute, Timco, Allison, and Sweet Favors.
Congratulations to all of the talented retail leaders who pulled off this win!
DUBLIN, IRELAND - Fyffes is optimizing its operations through its latest sustainability goals, all of which fall under its Healthy Food for Healthy Lives pillar. Hoping to address food waste and educate consumers, Fyffes is committing to reducing food loss in its own operations by 80 percent by 2030.
“Our commitment to reducing food loss from our production processes is part of our Sustainability Strategy,” stated Caoimhe Buckley, Director of Corporate Affairs. “We are planning to do this by repurposing our food loss through the development of new applications and uses for our core products, as well as further improving our logistics and planning capabilities. As the world’s population increases, the challenge must be to feed more people by wasting less of the food being produced rather than to grow more food.”
According to a press release, about a third of all the food produced in the world goes to waste each year, representing about seven percent of total greenhouse gas emissions.
Fyffes hopes to educate people on food waste and has partnered with a United Kingdom-based sustainability charity Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) for a Food Waste Action Week campaign. Taking place from March 1 to the 7, the aim of the initiative is to raise awareness about food waste and its impact on climate change.
Additionally, Feedback Global, a campaign group working to regenerate nature by transforming our food system, noted that nearly one billion hungry people across the globe could be fed on less than a quarter of the food that is wasted in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe.
To reduce poverty and hunger, Fyffes also works with qualified partners around the globe to donate surplus food to people in need, including Philabundance in North America, Global Foodbanking Network in Latin America, and FoodShare in the United Kingdom.
We as an industry are heavily invested in the future of our planet and its inhabitants, and we look forward to more sustainability goals to come.
BOSTON, MA - The power of data cannot be oversold. This is especially true for companies along the fresh produce supply chain, who rely on real-time data to ensure their shipments are taken care of at every step of the way. Enter Tive®, an industry partner bringing in-transit visibility of shipments around the globe. I spoke with Krenar Komoni, CEO and Founder, to understand more about the innovator’s platform and what it offers to its partners—and why Tive should be a must-see at the upcoming Viva Fresh event March 26–27.
“We use data generated by our industry-leading trackers to enable clients to proactively manage their shipments, improve their customers' experience, and unlock supply chain insights in an actionable real-time manner,” remarked Krenar. “Tive delivers a genuinely intuitive solution that enables our customers to manage their shipments seamlessly, integrates with TMS solutions, and provides actionable analytics and insights.”
If you’ve been paying attention to our newsletter for the past few weeks, you’ll remember that Tive made moves to advance one of the industry’s first collaborative supply chain visibility partner programs, Open Visibility Network. It also partnered with FourKites® and project44 to provide mutual customers with an integrated platform that combines in-transit data in one place.
“This data sharing will be huge, as traditional competitors work together to ensure that customers have the best in-transit visibility possible to get loads to market on time and in full,” Krenar commented.
Tive’s customer-centric approach is truly what sets it apart. The company itself is walking proof that shipment tracking needn’t be a pain point for the supply chain.
“Our customers choose Tive because we provide a full-stack solution—the hardware, the software, the platform, and the API integration. They’re looking for a one-player solution that integrates with their systems and we provide that,” Krenar pointed out.
And when a company works with Tive, they can trust their shipments are being taken care of, end to end.
“The benefits of the digital supply chain are clear: improved visibility enables greater efficiency, smoother operations, and ultimately, cost savings,” Krenar noted. “Customers adopting the Tive visibility platform gain real-time insights on their shipments, giving them a level of visibility not yet seen before in the industry, as well as a new window of opportunity to actually intervene if shipments are being improperly handled. Furthermore, Tive offers shippers and 3PLs the ability to meet and even exceed rising customer expectations for transparency, continuous support, and real-time connectivity.”
As the demands and expectations of the shipping industry continue to rise, so too will the need for real-time visibility solutions. Luckily for the industry, Tive is there to provide the service necessary to staying ahead of the competition.
ELGIN, MN - Are we rebranding the booty call? Heck yeah, we are! Honeybear Brands® and Pazzaz® apples are partnering with the Colon Cancer Coalition to remind customers of the reality that one in 24 Americans will be diagnosed with colon cancer, but early detection and a healthy diet can reduce the risk. Playful “make a booty call” stickers will be placed on Pazazz bagged apples at retail outlets throughout the month of March, ensuring that consumers won’t forget to set up an appointment and get screened. Retailers can also support the program with point-of-sale materials and digital assets.
“Protecting one’s health has always been important, but finding easy and delicious ways to do it is not always easy. Pazazz is a unique and full-flavored apple that makes eating a cancer-protective diet enjoyable,” said Kristi Harris, Honeybear Brands Brand Manager. “We are delighted to support the important work the Colon Cancer Coalition is doing to help raise awareness of this deadly cancer and encourage screening.”
According to the American Institute of Cancer Research®, there is evidence that foods containing dietary fiber can decrease the risk of colorectal cancer, a press release explained. Apples are one of the fruits high in dietary fiber, so they’re an easy addition to shoppers’ diets.
The National Foundation of Cancer Research reports that vitamin C in apples also acts as an antioxidant to support immune function and fight cancer cell growth.
“We are excited to partner with Honeybear Brands and Pazazz apples to promote healthy eating as one of several ways to reduce one’s risk for colorectal and many other cancers,” stated Chris Evans, President, Colon Cancer Coalition. “In addition to a fiber-filled diet, we hope this partnership can encourage on-time screening for this preventable cancer. Too much has been delayed in the past year, colorectal cancer screenings shouldn’t be one of them.”
What do you think, industry? Did we successfully rebrand the booty call?
SACRAMENTO, CA - Our Quiz Quix scholars came, saw, and conquered this week as we took a deep dive on Shenandoah Growers’ Living Herbs. We crowned both a buy- and supply-side winner, who will each receive a one-hundred dollar prize for their speedy test-taking skills.
Our buy-side winner was reigning champ Gene Harris, Senior Purchasing Manager/Travel Administrator at Denny's.
“I love reading The Snack, cover to cover, and I always check out every ANUK email,” Gene told us. “I'm blessed to have good reading comprehension and I always read the pre-quiz info. I love learning about all facets of the produce industry and the ANUK team consistently provides plenty of information!”
Our supply-side winner this round was Adam Brady, Director of Marketing at Shuman Farms.
“ANUK quizzes are a great way to challenge me to learn more about the industry I love, incentivizing spending a few minutes learning about an item or category unfamiliar to me,” Adam said in an email to ANUK. “I don’t think there’s any trick to winning, just reading and understanding before testing yourself on the new knowledge. Thanks for the opportunity, ANUK!”
Check out our leaderboard below to see who else nabbed a top spot this round.
To compete in our next quiz, make sure you’re subscribed to AndNowUKnow’s newsletter to stay in the loop on The Snack Magazine contests, industry news, and the chance to win our next quiz!
Sign in through your email or one of several social media accounts to join in the next Quiz Quix, and you might just nab our prize.
Quiz Quix is our way of encouraging a little healthy competition within the industry, and of course, to have fun. Signing in will give us a token to verify you and enables us to put your name in the ranking. It does not give us access to more than your name and email address—we value your security. Participants must have a valid email address registered in their individual name in order to play.
Congratulations to this round’s winners, and we’ll see you next time!
NOGALES, AZ - 2021 has already seen many things, but for the Nogales area, it has seen an increase on new commodities for the produce industry. The Fresh Produce Association of the Americas (FPAA) has been monitoring trends for commodities in southern Arizona, and new and specialty items continue to add value to Nogales as a produce hub.
“Nogales has always been known for produce, from asparagus to zucchini,” said President Lance Jungmeyer in a recent press release. “The growth in further new items exemplifies the innovation in new variety development to meet consumer and retailer demands.”
In the past few months alone, commodities have been reintroduced to the area as demand for unique products grows. Additionally, the area has seen sustainable increases in volume for fresh produce that is common to the local industry.
Some of the highlighted commodities include figs, pomegranates, Brussels sprouts, and lemons. Although these items are uncommon to the Nogales area, the high-quality local infrastructure and the ease of sourcing items from Nogales means the industry is poised to fill demand for these emerging items, the press release explained.
As a whole, Southern Arizona continues to import reliable volumes of tomato, watermelon, cucumber, bell pepper, eggplant, and many other key vegetable items that make it one of the most important suppliers of fresh produce. Commodities with the greatest growth include strawberries, broccoli, and radicchio.
FPAA noted that the new additions position Nogales as a nimble source that keeps up with changing times and evaluates what the market needs.
Across Nogales, this dedication asserts that evolution paired with reliability becomes the key to ensuring consumers get the fresh produce they demand, even in the cold winter months.
Stick around with AndNowUKnow as we cover all things related to fresh.