Continuing with its calculated growth track, Mucci Farms Ltd. plans to break ground on its newest state-of-the-art facility on American soil this fall. “We are deep into negotiations which will be a U.S. build,” said Joe Spano, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing. “We have acquired the land and hope the next build will wave the American flag.”

Jimmy Coppola, account manager, marketing, for Westmoreland Sales/TopLine, headquartered in Leamington, ON, told The Produce News that the company continues to grow, pack and ship all of its gourmet greenhouse produce.

“We seeded our new Dublin, Pulaski County, Virginia, greenhouse facility just today with both organic and conventional tomatoes,” Jim DiMenna, president of JemD Farms, headquartered in Kingsville, ON, told The Produce News June 18. “And we recently held a job fair in that area. We received over 325 applications, which was outstanding. We expect to have over 200 local employees when all phases of the facility are completed in about four years. Our goal was to create local job opportunities for the community, and the job fair indicates that we won’t have a problem doing that.”

BYRON CENTER, MI — Value-added produce packaging is now the leading business segment for Hearty Fresh Inc., located in a temperature-controlled warehouse, here.

“We are a custom repacker and do packaging,” said General Manager Nick Huizinga. “We promote our label ‘Hearty Fresh’.” But any private or customized label is available to customers, thanks to the firm’s three thermal printers.

Heath & Lejeune Inc, a full-service distributor of organic fruits and vegetables, which was founded in 1981, started its 33-year history “as more of a national distributor and service provider,” according to Patrick (Rick) C. Lejeune, chief executive officer, whose father, Patrick, was one of the founders of the company.

In 1952, D. DeFranco & Sons in Los Angeles became the first tomato re-packer on the West Coast to package tomatoes in tube trays, according to the company’s website.

Since then, three generations of DeFrancos have been involved in packing value-added produce.

The venerable third-generation produce company, now run by three brothers — Paul, Richard and Jerry De Franco, was initially founded by Dominic DeFranco in 1916 and has been operating in Los Angeles since the 1940s.