“We are very excited to be celebrating our second anniversary in this new facility,” said John Vena, president of John Vena Inc., located at the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market. “We operate from five units: F-1 through F-5. Our traditional wholesale business operates from units F-1 through F-4.  Unit F-5 is totally dedicated to the avocado business. There we built our own state of the art ripening rooms, and we do storage and distribution for West Pak Avocado Inc., our partners in the avocado business.”

Special varieties of stone fruit are very much the stock in trade for Family Tree Farms Marketing LLC in Reedley, CA, and this year the company has several new varieties either just coming on line or coming into fuller production that merit special mention, according to Dovey Plain, marketing coordinator.

In addition, Family Tree Farms now has a full line of white flesh nectarines, selected for their flavor, something “that we have been working on for several years,” to complement the company’s strong white flesh peach program, Ms. Plain said.

“We will have a lot more peaches, plums and nectarines than we did last year” because of “new plantings that are coming on line for us,” Justin Bedwell, a partner at Bari Produce LLC in Madera, CA, said in an interview with The Produce News. In addition, the company has about 80 acres of apricots that will be in production this year “that we didn’t have last year,” he said. “Every year, we continue to have more parcels that are coming into production on apricots.”

Inching near the end of the second year on the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market, Pinto Bros. Inc. said that being on the cutting edge facility continues to be a highly positive experience.

The company moved to PWPM when it opened in June, 2011, and occupies units G-7 through G-9 in the “blue” section of the market. The sections are brightly color-coded with hanging banners to make it easy for visitors to find the companies they want to visit.

The National Mango Board has published the Mango FreshFacts Shopper Insights report, which shows that shoppers who buy mangos spend 40 percent more per grocery basket than other produce buyers.

The report, prepared by Nielsen-Perishables Group, details shopper behavior based on loyalty card purchasing data from more than 30 million U.S. households. The study highlights opportunities to expand mango penetration beyond niche consumers and to increase frequency amongst the top buying groups.

Some key findings of the study include:

John Durante, president of Nardella Inc., located at the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market, told The Produce News that the company’s sales representative, Mike Reed, is leading the company’s new Ethnic produce program, and he’s doing an outstanding job at it.

“The program started about six months ago and has taken off incredibly well,” said Mr. Durante.

Mr. Reed said that he approached Mr. Durante about adding the line to the company’s already wide fruit and vegetable list of products last fall.