Industry veteran Leonard Batti has joined Taylor Fresh Foods Inc. as president of Taylor Farms Florida, based in Orlando, FL.

Founded by Bruce Taylor and others in 1995, Taylor Fresh Foods is the largest processor of fresh fruits and vegetables for the foodservice, retail and deli sector of the industry in North America, Batti told The Produce News.

Before joining Taylor Farms, Batti most recently was executive vice president and a principal at The Mixtec Group, a premier executive search firm for the produce industry, headquartered in Glendale, CA.

Key Food Stores Co-operative Inc., a chain of independently owned and operated grocery stores, is opening its newest Key Food location on West 125th Street in Harlem, NY. A grand opening celebration was scheduled for Nov. 22.

Local officials and Key Food executives, including Chief Executive Officer Dean Janeway, Chief Operating Officer George Knobloch, Vice President of Strategic Planning Chet Koby and Vice President of Business Development & Chief Customer Officer Gino Palummo, were scheduled to be in attendance.

Agriculture Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack recently appointed seven members to serve on the National Mango Board. The appointees include five new members and two reappointed members.

Walmart Stores Inc. announced that its board of directors elected company veteran Doug McMillon to succeed Mike Duke as president and chief executive officer, effective Feb. 1. McMillon was also elected to the company’s board of directors, effective immediately.

Ted Kreis, the marketing director for the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association, located in East Grand Forks, MN, provided his trade — and The Produce News — with the following breakdown of the latest USDA-National Agricultural Statistics Service potato crop production report on Nov. 12.

North Dakota’s 2013 potato crop will come in at 22.6 million hundredweight, down about 10.1 percent from last year.  Some were forecasting much worse.

The Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market will be the site of the Eastern Produce Council's meeting in May 2014, which will feature a former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback as the keynote speaker.

This will be the second meeting at the state-of-the-art facility. The first meeting was held in 2012 and drew over 240 attendees.