Members of the produce industry will join together to make their voices heard at the 2021 annual Washington Conference taking place Sept. 20-22 in person at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC.

For the first time, Just Walk Out technology is available in a new full-size Amazon Fresh grocery store. The company said customers can save time shopping for groceries by skipping the checkout line with the launch of its new Amazon Fresh grocery store with Just Walk Out shopping, opening Thursday, June 17 in The Marketplace at Factoria in Bellevue, WA.

This is the very first time the company has built the option to shop using Just Walk Out or traditional shopping all in one full-size grocery store — veggies, fruit, meat, seafood, prepared foods.

Nicolas Jammet and Jonathan Neman, co-founders and co-CEOs of nationally acclaimed fast causal restaurant chain sweetgreen, have been confirmed as the first of two keynote presenters at the fifth annual Organic Produce Summit this September in Monterey, CA.

Sweetgreen was founded in August 2007 by Jammet, Neman and Nathaniel Ru three months after they graduated from Georgetown University's undergraduate business school. Recognized as one of the nation’s most progressive food companies, sweetgreen has over 120 locations across the United States, and more than 3,500 employees.

Louis Rakoczy has joined Ocean Mist Farms as chief finance officer and Kevin Healy has joined the leading grower and marketer of fresh artichokes as its grower relations manager.

Sprouts Farmers Market recently opened a new produce distribution center in Orlando, FL, marking its first distribution center in Florida and its seventh across the country. Since opening its first store in the state in 2017, Sprouts has been rapidly expanding across Florida. The center will serve all the grocer's current 23 stores in the state and the additional 10 locations planned to open in Florida this year.

The Ontario Produce Marketing Association announced the appointment of seven new board members at its Annual General Meeting held June 9. The newly elected directors will serve three-year terms from 2021 to 2024.

The directors joining the OPMA’s board are Ryan Goad from Loblaw Cos.; Dan Tukendorf from the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association; Madison Hopper from Equifruit; Andrew George from EarthFresh Farms; Marc Wall from Sandy Shore Farms; Amanda Knauff from Taylor Farms; and Matthew Quiring from Nature Fresh Farms.