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Beautiful Country, Beautiful Fruit, Beautiful Taxi
London taxis are part of the 2013 campaign to promote South African fruit, specifically apples and pears throughout the Summer.Five taxis can will be driving around London for the next eight weeks carrying the ‘Beautiful Country, Beautiful Fruit’ campaign logo.www.beautifulcountrybeautifulfruit.co.uk
fruit.freshplaza.commore »
Turkey: Alara confident for cherry export season
Turkey’s top cherry grower-exporter expects a volume rise for 2013 despite rough weather conditions that impacted pollination.Beginning in late May, peaking around June 12 and running through to the end of July, Turkey has traditionally been one of Europe’s major sources of cherries, delivering high quality.....

15% increase in volumes with respect to 2012
Italy: Solinda mini-watermelons available from May
It's called Solinda and it is thePevianimini-watermelon with excellent qualities.As company managers comment, "the campaign started on 4th May with early greenhouse productions in Almeria (Spain). Produce from Spain enables us to cover the period until 15th June. Then we start with the Italian production,.....

Pachino:
Italian company bets on Cora Seeds' Nikas F1 mini-watermelons
"The size difference between mini and traditional watermelons is of 65% and 35% respectively. This perfectly shows the conversion happening in the watermelon sector, which has been going on for three-four years in Sicily," explains Salvatore Dell'Arte (in the photo below), chairman of the Società.....

Azienda Ciuffreda (Foggia - Puglia)
Italy: "We want to transform our cherries into organic jam"
"This year we want to diversify, and we would like to transform all of our cherries into jam. We will harvest fruits at the end of May-beginning of June and, in the meantime, we are looking for operators interested in selling this product and that can assist us. I think we will manage to produce 4 tonnes of.....
US (TX): Up to 90% peaches wiped out
The recent combination of severe weather event sin Texas may have reduced the peach harvest by around 90% in some places. This is the latest blow to the industry, which has suffered repeated bad harvests in recent years."The damage is pretty widespread," said Jamey Vogel, owner of Vogel Orchard in Stonewall.....

Cjo:
Italy: Campaign of early nectarines in greenhouses started
"We have just started the campaign of nectarines with the first greenhouse productions (photo below) in the Salerno area. We deeply believe in early production, and in fact we have scheduled new plantings of early nectarines," announces Antonio Costantino, chairman of the Cjo - Consorzio jonico.....
UK: Cool weather could mean great strawberries
Homegrown strawberries are expected to be larger and sweeter this year because of the cool weather. Experts claim the colder conditions caused a delay to the start of the growing season and resulted in stronger plants. Farmers say this will help boost the size of the fruit and its sugar levels, making.....

Rizziconi (Calabria)
Italy: UFO 4 Saturn peaches to be harvested in a month
Francesco Rodinò's company, located in Rizziconi, in the heart of the Gioia Tauro plain (Calabria), is expecting the harvesting of UFO 4 peaches, also known as Saturn peaches, to start in a month's time."This year, the trees planted in June 2011 are ready for an abundant and high quality production as they.....

Campaing about to start
Italy: AOP Armonia expecting 10,000 tons stone fruit
"Stone fruits represent AOP Armonia's most important product in terms of quantity and because of their value. This season, we are expecting to produce more than 10,000 tons," explains sales manager Marco Eleuteri."We have started harvesting peaches and nectarines at the beginning of May, with small.....

Spain: Melon and watermelon prices falling
The increase in melon supply is causing average prices to drop down to 0.60 Euro/kg. The average price of Galia melons has fallen to values close to 0.45-0.50 Euro/kg. Piel de Sapo melons reach the highest prices, close to 0.85-0.90 Euro/kg, while Yellow melons oscillate between 0.55 and 0.65 Euro/kg and the.....

Agricola Don Camillo
Aromatic netted Pregiato melons directly from Sicily
They come from Licata, in the Agrigento province (Sicily) and they are of the long-life type, that is to say that they can be shipped even to those markets that are far away from the producing area and that, for this reason, they are preferred by mass retailers, who can plan their sales better.They are.....
herbs.freshplaza.commore »

John van Laethem: "Wild garlic gives a dish added value"
New presentation of wild garlic at Van Laethem
Van Laethem's versatile assortment consists of culinary herbs, edible flowers, mini vegetables, sea vegetables and salads. A product that is also in the assortment again at the moment is wild garlic. The wild garlic(Allium ursinum) is a plant from the chive family(Alliaceae). It is a fairly rare variety.....
agenda.freshplaza.commore »
AU: Gold Coast Convention to host United Nations of Horticulture
Delegates representing 11 nations have confirmed their attendance at the AUSVEG National Convention, Trade Show and Awards for Excellence and associated events, highlighting the increasing international recognition of the event, the biggest of its type in Australia. “Australian-grown vegetables are.....
citrus.freshplaza.commore »

In the 2013/2014 season
Brazil: Estimated orange production 328 million boxes from Sao Paulo
The commercial production of oranges in the State of Sao Paulo (Brazil) for the 2013/2014 season is estimated at 328 million boxes of 40.8 kilos. Estimates are that 16.2 million boxes can be either lost or of a low economic expression.The figures are from the first harvest survey, conducted by the National.....

Edward Out (OTC-Holland):
"Difficult to convince supermarkets to choose only organic grapefruits"
In the middle of April the harvest of organic Starruby grapefruit started in South Africa. OTC-Holland received the first Starruby's in the meantime and distributed these to their customers. The import season for organic citrus fruit from South Africa has officially started OTC-Holland. After the grapefruit,.....
Moreno Bonfatti (Fruttital)
Italy: Slight delays for imports of South African grapefruit
"Star Ruby, the sweetest red variety of grapefruit, is the most popular in Italy, whereas the White Marsh, which is more bitter, is consumed less. Ruby Red, the pink variety, has no market, while it is really popular in France and Northern Europe in general."Moreno Bonfatti(in the photo), manager of Verona's.....
exotic.freshplaza.commore »
Kiwifruit growers 'in the dark' over Chinese smuggling
Some kiwifruit growers are accusing Zespri of keeping them in the dark over not revealing the full extent of a Chinese customs investigation that saw a Zespri subsidiary fined nearly $1 million for smuggling.New Zealand Customs has told ONE News the department learnt of the investigation in February 2011,.....
organic.freshplaza.commore »
Clashes in Washington over organic agriculture
The organic food industry is gaining clout on Capitol Hill, prompted by rising consumer demand and its entry into traditional farm states. But that isn't going over well with everyone in Congress.Tensions between conventional and organic agriculture boiled over last week during a late-night House Agriculture.....
health.freshplaza.commore »
"Italians need to increase fruit consumption"
Some 75% of Italians have difficulty following a healthy diet, a report by the Centre for Study and Research on Obesity from the University of Milan said on Thursday. Italy's famous 'Mediterranean diet' alone is not enough to "fulfil the nutritional needs of the Italians," centre director Michele Carruba.....
it.freshplaza.commore »

Scientists sequence kiwifruit's genome
An international team of scientists, led by Zhangjun Fei of the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (BTI) at Cornell University, New York; Yongsheng Liu at Hefei University of Technology; and Hongwen Huang of the Botanical Garden of South China, has sequenced and assembled the draft genome of.....
innovations.freshplaza.commore »
Catalyst keeps fruit fresh longer
Ripening fruit, vegetables and flowers let off ethylene which works as a plant hormone. Ethylene quickens the ripening process and causes fruit and vegetables to rot and flowers to wilt. Japanese scientists presented a completely new catalyst system in a trade magazine, that quickly and completely, breaks.....
processed.freshplaza.commore »
Study shows canned peaches maintain nutrition
The California Cling Peach Board says it has found, via research, evidence that canned peaches still contain a wealth of vitamins. The study, carried out over several years by Oregon State University and the Linus Pauling Institute, claims to demonstrate that canned peaches contain the equivalent amount of.....
cooling.freshplaza.commore »

US: Williams Farms choose SRS Hycool storage for potatoes
SRS Frigadon Ltd of Stratford upon Avon in the UK received an enquiry early 2012 for supplying a bespoke Hycool fluid SRS Frigadon chiller system the purpose being for a potato storage installation located in New York State, USA.Prior to considering the SRS Frigadon chiller ‘Secondary Refrigerant Systems’.....
foodsafety.freshplaza.commore »
Monsanto, Bayer seek answers to bee losses
Monsanto is hosting a "Bee Summit." Bayer AG is breaking ground on a "Bee Care Center." And Sygenta AG is funding grants for research into the accelerating demise of honeybees in the United States, where the insects pollinate fruit and vegetables that make up roughly a quarter of the American diet.The.....
nuts.freshplaza.commore »

US (CA): Groundbreaking nitrogen research arrives for almond growers
New protocol developed under a multi-year, multi-disciplinary fertilizer management project funded in part by the Almond Board of California and led by UC Davis pomologist Patrick Brown, is refining the way almond growers and other farmers make decisions about fertilizing their crops.As a result of this.....
packaging.freshplaza.commore »
ESP Solutions develops packaging that cuts down on waste
As the the materials traditionally used for the packaging of fresh produce diminish or are phased out because of their harmful effects on the environment, new packaging materials will be needed. ESP Solutions develops packaging materials that are eco-friendly, and their 303D resin promises to increase the.....
productinfo.freshplaza.commore »
Ceradis launches FytoFert® in Ecuador
Ceradis is pleased to announce the introduction of FytoFert® in Ecuador. FytoFert® is a unique line of fertilizers that increase crop yields and quality. Yields are increased by providing the plants with essential micronutrients needed for growth. Quality is enhanced by activating the plants defense system.....
retail.freshplaza.commore »
US retail sales up 0.5% in first two weeks of May
National chain store sales rose 0.5% in the first two weeks of May from April, according to Redbook Research's latest indicator, released Tuesday.The index's rise compared with a targeted 0.6% gain.The Johnson Redbook Index also showed seasonally adjusted sales for the period were up 2.6% from last year,.....
Sales growth returns at Morrisons
Morrisons has finally started to show signs of recovery, after a sustained period of weak trading.The Bradford-based grocer grew its sales by 2.1 per cent in the four weeks to 12 May, a marked improvement on flat or falling revenue for much of the last year, Kantar Worldpanel says.The performance put it.....
Tesco to launch drive to reduce food waste
The UK’s biggest supermarket is launching a campaign to tackle “breathtaking” amounts of food waste, which it says costs households £700 a year.Tesco will unveil its food waste strategy on Thursday when it is also expected to reveal chief executive Philip Clarke and 5,000 top managers missed out on bonuses.....
X5 Retail Group Q1 Profit Slips; Sales Up
Russian retailer X5 Retail Group N.V. (FIVE.L) posted lower profit for the first quarter, but net sales rose from last year.The group's net profit for the quarter slipped to $65.1 million from $66.3 million a year ago. Profit before tax slid to $86.6 million from $90.3 million.However, EBITDA rose 3.7.....
UK retail sales unexpectedly fall 1.3% on food
UK retail sales unexpectedly fell in April, led by the biggest drop in food sales for almost two years and indicating continued weakness in consumer spendingSales including fuel declined 1.3 percent from March, when they fell 0.6 percent, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. The median.....
Quafety.freshplaza.commore »
Fresh-cut lettuce: how the cutting increases microbial growth
Margarita Barros and Mikal Saltveit, scientists from Davis University (California, USA) have published on International Journal Postharvest Biology and Technology, a work on the relation between microbial growth and the wound-induced phenolic accumulation in fresh-cut lettuce.Lettuce wounding during cutting.....
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