HAMMONTON, NJ — The 2014 New Jersey blueberry season should start “a little later than last year,” according to Art Galletta, president of Atlantic Blueberry Co., based in the southern New Jersey community that is known as “The Blueberry Capital of the World.”

The season “looks to start around June 18” and “should quickly ramp up,” Galletta told The Produce News Wednesday, May 28.

Volume statewide last year was “pretty good,” he said, coming in around 65 million pounds.

To-Jo Mushrooms Inc. announced that Kevin Delaney has joined the company as vice president of sales and marketing and Amy Steenrod has been appointed director of human resources.

At the United Fresh convention in Chicago, a panel of experts on the buy side addressed the local food movement with Bill Pool of Wegman’s Food Markets Inc., summing up the tone of the debate: The opportunities outweigh the obstacles, but there are obstacles.

Pool, who is manager of produce safety for that Rochester, NY-based chain, was joined on the panel by David McInerney, co-founder of Fresh Direct, and Kathleen Phillips, supply chain sustainability manager for Pro*Act LLC.

Giumarra Wenatchee will again market its crop of New Zealand Meyer lemons in July. The company noted that an excellent growing season produced fruit with a well-balanced sugar-to-acid ratio.

First vessel shipments are expected to be available July 14. Giumarra Wenatchee is also taking early season air freight orders.

The starting gun will sound shortly, and the stone fruit season in the Pacific Northwest will be under way. All indications are for a successful season in 2014.

Coosemans Worldwide Inc. opened a new specialty and organic produce division under the California Specialty Farms banner on the Los Angeles Produce Terminal Market.