Earth Source Trading, a leading produce importer and wholly owned subsidiary of Four Seasons Produce Inc. in Ephrata, PA, announced the U.S. debut of the New Zealand-grown Premier Star apple.

Save Mart Supermarkets announced perishable grocery donations from the chain’s 226 stores topped 1 million pounds in the first quarter of this year. The food, which includes produce, bakery, dairy, deli and frozen products, is collected daily by local area food banks as part of the Fresh Food Rescue program launched in March 2012 by the Modesto, CA-based grocer and Feeding America, one of the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief organizations.

In anticipation of the release of Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation’s The Smurfs 2, in theaters July 31, Gourmet Trading Co. is bringing back the iconic characters to the labels on its packages of California, Oregon and British Columbia blueberries.

Tony Guisto is something of an urban legend in Big Sky Country — at least to one doctor.

“Being on a ranch is physically demanding,” he told The Produce News. “I’ll do it while I’m young and dumb. If you’re going to work cattle with horses, you’re going to get hurt.”

And right he was.

Because of what many call the alternate bearing tendency of a mango tree, the Chiapas region didn’t deliver the volume of Ataulfos that Ciruli Bros. LLC were looking for during the early stretch of the Mexican mango deal.

“Right now we are transitioning out of Chiapas and into Nayarit,” said Chris Ciruli, the Nogales, AZ-based company’s chief operating officer, in mid-May. “It’s a new field and a new pick and we expect better volume.”

HAMMONTON, NJ — The 2013 New Jersey spring produce deal was underway and would be gaining strength when The Produce News visited Frank Donio Inc. in mid-May, but the company was also looking ahead to the Jersey blueberry deal, announcing that it had increased its blueberry acreage for the upcoming season by close to 15 percent.