Pundit’s Mailbag —
Vendor Selling Platforms
One vendor, who wished to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, is feeling frustrated: Are you aware that the major retailers now require all vendors that have commodities to sell them now belong to a “Very Expensive Club”? It is called a “Vendor Selling Platform” for lack of better words. The membership fees can range from […]
Mechanisms For Trace-Back
And Trace-Forward Needed
With two recent pieces, Center For Produce Safety Established: An Act Of Faith In The Future and Fresh Express Research Grant Is Allocated To Scientists, we chronicled industry efforts to enhance our understanding of E. coli 0157:H7 and other pathogens that affect fresh produce. It is hoped that enhanced understanding will lead to more effective […]
Imagination Farms/Disney Garden
Score Big Points With PBH And Pixar
They’ve been very active growing in the Disney Garden. This is the project focused on increasing fresh fruit and vegetable consumption among children by utilizing Disney characters. We’ve dealt with the project and Imagination Farms, the non-transactional produce company set up to facilitate the enterprise, many times including here, where we pointed out that the […]
Good News For Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart could use some good news and now they’ve got it: TNS FIGURES SHOW ASDA IS BRITAIN’S FASTEST GROWING RETAILER Today’s (4 April 2007) TNS figures (12 week) show that ASDA is outperforming the rest of the retail sector for the first time in three years, with year on year growth of nine percent. The […]
Justifying WGA’s Washington Office
Western Growers Association has announced that it will be opening a Washington, D.C.-based office for government relations — an event that could turn out to be deeply significant for the trade. On the bright side, another hand on deck fighting for produce industry interests in D.C. could be helpful, and Matt McInerney, WGA Executive Vice […]
New Translation Capabilities
Here at the Pundit, we’ve been graced with regular readers from every continent except Antarctica. We consider it a great win for the industry to have the opportunity to explain what goes on in the U.S.A. to a worldwide audience. To facilitate this exchange, we have added translation functionality to the site. Simply click on […]
Univeg And Ready Pac Issue Joint Statement
Our piece, Ready Pac/Bayside Deal Leaves One Wondering What Happened To Univeg, reported on Ready Pac receiving an investment from Bayside Capital, a private equity firm. We also mentioned how odd it was that the announcement did not mention anything about the previously announced deal with Univeg. Now, both Univeg and Ready Pac have issued […]
What If We Only Had Organic Fruit?
When Stemilt announced a redesign of its shipping cartons, we thought it interesting and discussed the new cartons here because the new, more attractive, cartons had been made possible by new, less expensive, printing technology. This technology opened the door for shippers to upgrade their carton graphics and, in turn, for the industry to have […]
Would British Retail Consortium Standards Have Prevented The Spinach Crisis?
“I believe that if all companies had adopted BRC standards, the spinach E. coli outbreak very well could have been avoided.” — Jo McDonald Technical Services Manager British Retail Consortium This is the haunting conclusion of a standards administrator from across the Atlantic. Is it true? And what are we going to do about it? […]
Fresh Express Research Grant
Is Allocated To Scientists
Yesterday’s piece, Center For Produce Safety Established: An Act Of Faith In The Future, highlighted the birth of an important new industry institution to fund and conduct scientific research on produce safety. Yet, back in January, when Fresh Express announced its gift of $2 million it gave the industry another unique gift — An advisory […]
