The Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers recently announced that Halton Healthcare Services/Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital site received the first OGVG Local Food Week award.

HHS is a multi-site healthcare organization and is comprised of three hospitals serving the communities of Milton, Oakville, Clarkson and Halton Hills in Ontario, Canada.  

The Canadian Produce Marketing Association held its semi-annual board meeting in Ottawa in mid-September, allowing participants to take a strategic look at where the organization is in terms of its current five-year plan and look ahead to the 2020 plan.

The event took place over three days and yielded some interesting results, including a change to the convention format.

Tensions between Canada and the United States are growing over the issue of Canada’s lack of protection for American suppliers in the event of buyer insolvency.

Canadian companies exporting to the U.S. currently have the same rights as U.S. companies under the U.S. Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act Trust, but according to a Fresh Produce Alliance press release, if reciprocal measures are not soon introduced in Canada, that special status may be revoked.

Produce veteran Connie Stukenberg has returned to the California Avocado Commission staff full-time as retail marketing director. Stukenberg, who had worked on CAC’s merchandising staff from 2000 to 2009, then continued her affiliation with the commission as part of her own business consultancy, CS Sales & Marketing for Results, rejoined the CAC staff effective Aug. 31.

Setton International Foods Inc., a family-owned company based in Commack, NY, offers more than 1,000 different products, including nuts, dried fruit, edible seeds and other snack items marketed under the “Setton Farms” brand. In 1995, Setton acquired a state-of-the-art pistachio processing and packaging plant in Terra Bella, CA, and formed Setton Pistachios of Terra Bella Inc., which has become the second largest processor of pistachios in the United States.

As Central American Produce Inc. shifts from its Mexican mango deal to the Ecuadorian deal, it is also continuing its label shift to the more descriptive “CAPCO” brand.

Sabine Henry, who is involved in tropical sales for the Pompano Beach, FL-based firm, said it began the shift from the “Mayan Pride” label to “CAPCO” to better identify the company name. CAPCO is an acronym for Central American Produce Co. and can represent all of the firm’s mangos, which it will do at some point in the future.