by Carl Collen, Fruitnet   This season’s Florida orange crop increased by 5m boxes in the latest estimate released Tuesday by the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).   The orange crop is projected to hit 76m boxes this season, up 7 per cent on the previous estimate, while the Florida […]

by Martyn Fisher, Fruitnet   Asda’s fresh produce supply arm International Procurement and Logistics (IPL) is helping the retailer shift from a model where pineapples are supplied to Asda through third party vendors, to one where 30 per cent of pineapples going to Asda stores comes via IPL.   The first shipment of pineapples – from […]

by John Groh, The Produce News   Hapco Farms is looking forward to the start of its domestic watermelon deal, with product from south Florida expected to begin shipping in late April.   Raquel Mello, who is in watermelon sales for the Riverhead, NY-based company, said that Florida melons have gotten off to a slow start […]

  Cooking banana is the main staple crop in Uganda produced mostly by smallholders for food and income. However, the cooking banana value chain players face risks of high postharvest losses due to the short green life of bananas and damage arising from poor handling of the produce after it is harvested, leading to high […]

  Imported citrus rootstock could open up new growing areas and higher volumes for growers based on research happening in New South Wales.   Rootstock can have a large effect on many aspects of production including yield, fruit quality, tree size, disease tolerance and scion compatibility.   All commercial citrus varieties in Australia are budded […]

  Scientists at the Universitat Politècnica de València have combined images provided by European and American remote sensing satellites to diagnose the irrigation status of citrus fields, as well as other crop characteristics such as vegetation cover or plant vigour.   The project is the result of an experiment carried out by the Hydraulic Networks […]

  According to Julio Reyes Vazquez, the president of the municipal committee of the National Peasant Confederation (CNC), more than 1,200 hectares of citrus are at the mercy of pests, such as the fruit fly, that would affect 2,000 producers in Tuxpan alone, because of the lack of government support in this county.   “The […]

by Maura Maxwell Fruitnet   The growing body of research demonstrating the benefits of kiwifruit for human health was presented at the first-ever International Symposium on Kiwifruit and Health which is taking place this week in Tauranga, New Zealand.   The symposium, organised by the Riddet Institute of New Zealand and sponsored by Zespri, brings together […]

  One of REWE’s sustainability projects is the banana fund. The fund is an initiative of REWE and is it used to improve the environmental and social conditions in South and Central America. And now REWE linked the sustainability weeks to a fundraiser: Customers who buy “REWE Best choice” or “Chiquita” bananas help the development […]

  Trade at Exofi in Brussels is fairly calm according to Jan Vermeiren. “We are, of course, between two seasons currently, and besides, we still feel the effects of the attacks. We can tell from the economic situation and it is costing billions of Euro. Less hotel bookings are being made in Brussels. When people […]

  Just like it happened in the past for products like bananas, nowadays exotic fruit like mangos, avocados and passion fruit are becomming increasingly popular with consumers. “Not all retailers sell exotic fruit, but it has become easier to find it. People are increasingly interested in this type of product,” explains a wholesaler from Bologna. […]

  Wonderful Citrus, an integrated grower, shipper and packer of fresh citrus, announced the acquisition of I. Kunik Company, a major distributor of Persian limes grown in Mexico, and the purchase of the operations of B&S Grupo Exportador, S.A. de C.V., a major supplier of Persian limes to the worldwide market. As part of the […]