SuperValu Inc. announced that Frank A. (Terry) Savage and Mathew M. Pendo have been elected to the company’s board of directors, effective April 24. Savage and Pendo were both appointed to the board as designees of Symphony Investors LLC, a Cerberus Capital Management L.P.-led investor consortium, under the terms of the tender offer agreement entered into with Symphony Investors and Cerberus in connection with SuperValu’s sale of five banners to an affiliate of Symphony Investors.

Turbana Corp., a leading marketer of tropical produce, announced that it has expanded its tropical program to include seven new items, increasing its tropicals line to 19 items.

Groovy coconut, aji cachucha, avocado, ginger, Habanero pepper, malanga amarilla and sour orange have been added to Turbana's existing tropicals of aloe vera, batata, calabaza, chayote, dry coconut, malanga coco, malanga lila, malanga blanca, yellow yam, yuca, name and eddo.

Sunlight International, the marketing arm of California grape grower Jakov P. Dulcich & Sons, announced a new member of its sales team: Industry veteran Gene Coughlin will join Sunlight as its newest sales executive.

Wish Farms is offering a year-round supply of conventional and organic strawberries and blueberries. With the Florida strawberry season completed, focus has turned to the California strawberry season and Florida blueberry season.

Wish Farms grows strawberries in Salinas and Santa Maria. This will be the first year of growing organic strawberries in California.

California blueberry growers are tickled pink as they ramp up production for their 2014 season. Alexander Ott, executive director of the California Blueberry Commission, places volume in the neighborhood of 54 million pounds. "That's slightly higher than last year," he told The Produce News.

HLB Specialties has made its mark in the produce industry as a papaya specialist and distributor of other tropical produce items, but achieving that status was a process — and not an easy one at that.

HLB Specialties, based in Pompano Beach, FL, was founded by Homero Levy De Barros and is celebrating 25 years in business. He credits the success of his company to a willingness to take chances.

“We like challenges, and we don’t shy away from them,” Levy de Barros said. “I think that is what separates us from other companies.”