Vanguard International has added new talent to its team with the hiring of Ignacio Ugarte in Chile and Fanny Robles in Peru.

Ugarte is an agronomist with years of produce industry experience. Ignacio’s past roles include quality controller with Decofrut as well as the operations manager at Aconex USA and Sun Valley. He also had a tenure with a Chilean produce platform based in Bangkok, Thailand, and for the last five years held the role of procurement manager in Chile and South America with Aozora New Zealand.

Farmstead announced its expansion into a fifth major city: Austin, TX. The company will bring its online grocery service to the area by mid-2021. The waitlist for service has opened and is limited to the first 1,000 people.

Country Fresh and Sun Rich USA, two divisions previously part of the Fresh Food Group, will now operate as a standalone company under the Country Fresh name following the completion of the acquisition of Country Fresh and Sun Rich USA assets by a group consisting of Stellex Capital Management, previous management, and Country Fresh’s original founder. The new parent entity will operate under the Country Fresh name and provide Country Fresh and Sun Rich USA brand products.

Proving its adaptability for 20 years and beyond, Oppy has been chosen as one of Canada’s Best Managed companies yet again, as the grower, marketer and distributor of fresh produce emerges from an unprecedented year.

May is national salad month and Braga Fresh is introducing three new Josie’s Organics premium salad kits:  Lemon Herb, Rustic Tomato and Spring Blush. All three organic salad kits are available now.

“The Braga team focused on creating three very different organic salad kit offerings by using unique components such as shaved fennel and newer baby green varieties that have more crunch and loft,” said Kori Tuggle, vice president of marketing and product development.

In celebration of its fifth Produce for Kids in-store cause marketing campaign, Harps Food Stores kicked off Produce for Kids Fridays last week, the first of many at Harps through the end of August.