Posts Tagged “feature”
By VegNews
Plant-based food companies have raised more than $16 billion in the last decade, with record gains of $13 billion in 2017 and 2018 alone, according to the “State of the Industry Report” released recently by non-profit organization Good Food Institute (GFI).
A plant-based diet is a diet consisting mostly or entirely of foods derived from plants, including vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes and fruits, and with few or no animal products.
“Investors and entrepreneurs are capitalizing on a global shift in the way meat is produced. The market opportunity here is massive,” GFI Executive Director Bruce Friedrich said. “Shifting consumer values have created a favorable market for alternatives to animal-based foods, and we have already seen fast-paced growth in this space across retail and foodservice markets.”
GFI identified Impossible Food’s $189-million late-stage venture capital round as 2018’s largest investment deal, followed by vegan milk brand Ripple Foods’$65-million Series C round, Beyond Meat’s $50-million Series H round, and Califia Farms’$50-million private equity round.
The report also found that 2018 was a record year of investment activity in the cell-based meat industry—where meat is grown using a small number of animal cells in a lab-setting—which saw 12 startups raise $50 million in capital across 14 deals. Since 2009, 19 plant-based companies were acquired by non-vegan brands, with 10 of these deals—including the 2017 acquisition of plant-based milk producer WhiteWave Foods by Danone for $12.5 billion, the largest deal of its kind to date—occurring in the last two years.
“These industries are accelerating rapidly, and we are about to see them take off. There is a great deal of momentum, which has been brought about by product innovation, greater emphasis on quality, more investment, and a change in consumer values,” GFI Director of Innovation Brad Barbera said.
“There is still so much growth possible, and there are great opportunities that come with that. Investors and entrepreneurs recognize the vast market opportunity on offer to get involved while these industries take form.”
Recently, Beyond Meat became the first plant-based meat company to be publicly traded on NASDAQ and the unprecedented success of its initial public offering (IPO)—the best-performing IPO of the year—is evidence of consumer interest in investing in the plant-based industry.
By Applewood Fresh Growers LLC
SPARTA, Mich. — Applewood Fresh Growers LLC expects shipments to increase 20 percent over last year for SweeTango®.
As the lead marketer in the Midwest for the variety that comes from the Minnesota breeding program, Applewood Fresh promotes the marriage of the Honeycrisp and Zestar! varieties in SweeTango for its standout flavor and texture.
SweeTango is expected to start in Michigan around September 3rd.
Applewood Fresh is the exclusive seller of the KIKU® and Kanzi® managed varieties in the Midwest. Increased volume of 50 percent is projected for the 2019 season with Kanzi and a 10 percent increase with Kiku.
The newest variety expected to catapult Applewood Fresh’s reputation for excellence is Rave®. The company has grown the juicy, early season Honeycrisp-meets-MonArk cross as a test for the past 3 years. An agreement has been signed with Stemilt, a family-owned fruit tree growing, packing and shipping company based in Wenatchee, WA, to plant significant acreage of the variety in 2 locations in Michigan.
A second packing line at the facility where Applewood Fresh headquarters is located in Sparta, MI, will more than double the capacity for all varieties.
“More capacity allows us to bring on more quality fruit from some of the finest young growers and family operations in the Michigan industry,” says Scott Swindeman, Co-owner of Applewood Fresh Growers “Working together to produce the very finest apples is important to all of us—our growers, Applewood Fresh and our valued customers.
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About Applewood Fresh
Applewood Fresh Growers LLC, a grower, packer, shipper and marketer of the finest Michigan apples, can trace its roots back to 1935 and the founding of affiliate company Applewood Orchards, Inc. With its third generation of family ownership, the company represents growers at primarily family-owned orchards across the state that inspire a mission to bring quality apples to consumers year-round. Applewood Fresh currently ships 21 apple varieties, made possible by its network of 50+ growers.
For more information, visit ApplewoodFresh.com.
NAPIERVILLE, Quebec — Most Quebec commercial growers have a mixture of different vegetables when it comes to shipping their produce to domestic customers and exporting to the U.S. and elsewhere.
Delfland of Napierville is shipping shallots from last year’s crop, but the new season will soon start. Movement is expected to be brisk as both France and Holland had less than stellar seasons.
About 50 percent of Delfland’s carrots, onions and shallots are exported, with the remainder shipped to eastern Canadian markets.
Les Fermes Hotee and Van Winden of Napierville began farming 40 years ago with 100 acres, and now has 780 acres. Half of it is iceberg and romaine lettuce, a fourth is onion and the remaining fourth is bok choy, napa cabbage, yellow beets and celeriac.
The company began shipping yellow onions the last week of July.
Some of their crops are processed for fast-food chains Taco Bell, Burger King and Subway, while others go into bagged salads for retail.
In winter, the operation grows product in Florida, but processes it in Quebec, before trucking it six hours south to the New York market.
Les Fermes Hotee and Van Winden ships 75 percent of its vegetables to the U.S., and 20 percent to Vegpro in Sherrington to be processed for bags for Quebec’s main retailers — Loblaw, IGA and Metro — and 5 percent goes to the fresh market.
At Ferme A. & R. Trucot, of Saint-Roch-de-I’Achigan 80 to 85 percent of its products goes to destinations in the Quebec province, and the remainder exported to the Northeastern U.S.
At Ferme GNC, 70 percent of its vegetables goes to Quebec, and 30 percent is exported to the U.S. Customers are processors, retailers, food sellers and wholesalers — all with different packing needs.
While consumer spending on fruit and vegetables increased in 2017, it still trailed the percentage hike in overall spending on food.
The data is found in the 2017 Consumer Expenditures report published by The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Overall total consumer spending increased 4.8 percent in 2017, following an increase of 2.4 percent in 2016. The report said the average annual expenditures by consumer units increased from $57,311 in 2016 to $60,060 in 2017.
Spending on fruits and vegetables totaled $837 in 2017, an increase of 6.9 percent compared with 2016, which compares a 7.3 percent increase in spending on all food.
Food-at-home spending rose 7.3 percent to $4,363 while food-away-from-home spending rose 6.7 percent to $3,365, according to the CE report. The percentage of total expenditures on food was reported at 13 percent in 2017, the same share as the previous three years.
The mean average spending across all consumer units was $274 for fresh vegetables and $314 for fresh fruit. The share of fresh produce purchases compared to all consumer expenditures was 0.5 percent for fresh vegetables and 0.5 percent for fresh fruit.
By the age of consumers, for example, top spending consumers for fresh fruit were in the 45 to 54 age bracket, with mean expenditures of $378 or 2017. That compares with just $176 spend on fresh fruit for consumers aged under 25.
For fresh vegetables, the 35 to 44-year-old age group was top rated, with 2017 mean expenditures of $329 compared with $138 for consumers under age 25.
Not surprisingly, the report said that top spenders on fresh produce were top earners. Consumers making more than $200,000 per year spent an average of $529 on fresh vegetables, compared with $140 for those making less than $15,000. But consider the consumer making less than $15,000 was spending 0.6 percent of income on fresh vegetables, compared with 0.3 percent for the consumer making more than $200,000.
There is more micro-analysis where that came from. The report shows spreadsheets for spending by income before taxes by quintile, decile, and range; age of the reference person; size of the consumer unit; composition of the consumer unit; number of earners; housing tenure (homeowner or renter) and type of area (urban or rural); region of residence; occupation; highest education level of any consumer unit member; race; Hispanic or Latino origin; and generation of reference person.
A 4 percent increase in U.S. apple shipments is forecast by the USDA for the upcoming 2019-20 season.
The 2019 crop — fresh and processing crops — is forecast at 10.6 billion pounds, or 252.4 million (42-pound) cartons. An increase of 4 percent from a year ago.
“Washington growers reported favorable summer growing weather, contributing to a crop with excellent quality and finish,” the USDA reported in its forecast.
New York growers also reported good growing conditions. In Michigan, a wet spring hampered pollination. Below normal fruit counts in Michigan were partially offset by good fruit sizing, according to the report.
The USDA forecast for the major apple shipping states are:
- California: 300 million pounds, up 20 percent from 250 million pounds last year;
- Michigan: 1.05 billion pounds, unchanged from a year ago;
- New York: 1.25 billion pounds, down 10 percent from 1.4 billion pounds last year;
- Pennsylvania: 500 million pounds, up 2 percent from 488 million pounds in 2018;
- Virginia: 185 million pounds, down 9 percent from 204 million pounds a year ago; and
- Washington: 7.2 billion pounds, up 7 percent from 6.7 billion pounds in 2018.
A partnership has been completed between Church Brothers Farms of Salinas, CA and FiveStar Gourmet Foods of Ontario, CA. The latter has value-added salads and packaged snacks for retail and a range of fresh-cut items for foodservice operators.
The move will allow FiveStar to offer bagged salad kits and other convenience items beyond its Simply Fresh salad line in plastic containers, with conventional and organic products.
Through the agreement, the companies expand product offerings in the retail and foodservice arenas, but also will collaborate on resources, infrastructure, logistics, food safety and facilities, according to a news release from the companies.
The partnership is effective immediately. There is no change in ownership or personnel, and the companies continue to operate separately.
For several years, FiveStar has purchased product grown by Church Brothers for its Simply Fresh line of salads.
“This legal partnership creates a vertically integrated program for FiveStar Gourmet Foods and we are extremely excited to work with such a well-known, established company like Church Brothers Farms,” Tal Shoshan, CEO of FiveStar, Ontario, Calif., said in the release. “A grower-direct supply helps further our new product innovation especially within packaged salads like blends and kits, which FiveStar plans to impact in a big way, similar to how we impacted the salad bowl category.”
Church Brothers CEO Brian Church said the company plans to use the partnership to enter the bagged salad category.
“This partnership allows us to expand into regional processing with FiveStar’s state-of-the-art facilities in California and Florida, and quickly scale up to create new, innovative value added-items for our customers,” Church said in the release. “FiveStar will leverage our strong land base of more than 40,000 conventional and organic crop acres to expand into the bagged salad category.”
By Pear Bureau Northwest
PORTLAND, Ore. – Northwest pear growers have released their latest crop estimate for pear shipments in the 2019-20 season. The estimate is based on data reported from Washington’s Wenatchee and Yakima districts and Oregon’s Mid-Columbia and Medford districts.
While the initial season estimate – reported in May – came in at 17.3 million standard box equivalents, the current estimate is around 18.6 million standard box equivalents, or 408,800 US tons. This marks an 8 percent increase from the initial crop estimate, coming in 1 percent higher than the 5-year average and 1 percent less than the 2018 harvest.
“The increase from the initial estimate is due to the fruit sizing up very well in the last two months. Growers are reporting large, beautiful fruit on the trees with sizes that are in demand from retailers in the U.S. and Canada. With ample larger sized pears, there will also be plenty of smaller fruit to fill the demand for bagged pears and for the export markets that prefer smaller fruit,” stated Kevin Moffitt, President and CEO of Pear Bureau Northwest (PBNW).
Picking is just about to begin throughout the four growing regions of the Northwest and will continue throughout August and September. Pick dates for the 2019-20 season are later than last season, but close to the historical average. Starkrimson harvest is beginning this week in most districts, with the Bartlett picking starting this week in Mid-Columbia and next week in the other districts. Later in the month, harvest of Comice, Bosc, Forelle and Seckel will begin along with Anjou harvest, with harvest completed by late September.
Based on the current estimates for this season, Green Anjou will be the leading variety with 9.5 million standard boxes (about 51 percent of total Northwest fresh pear crop), with Green Bartlett following at 4.8 million standard boxes (about 26 percent of the total crop), and Bosc with 2.5 million (about 13 percent of the total crop). There will be 1.1 million standard boxes of Red Anjou, representing about 6 percent of the crop.
Organic pear numbers are included in the overall estimate and their numbers continue to grow with more acres in transition. This year’s organic estimate is 1.9 million standard boxes (42,000 tons), making up 11 percent of the total Northwest crop. Looking at the entire organic crop, growers project 705,350 standard boxes of Green Anjou, with the Green Bartlett and Bosc crops sizes projected at 700,550 and 273,400 standard boxes, respectively.
About Pear Bureau Northwest
Pear Bureau Northwest is a non-profit marketing organization established in 1931 to promote the fresh pears grown in Washington and Oregon, home to 88 percent of the US commercial fresh pear crop. The Bureau represents close to 900 grower families and partners with outlets throughout the world in an effort to increase overall success with the pear category. The organization provides marketing and merchandising expertise that is customized specifically for each retail organization, using its pear consumer research findings as well as individual store analysis using an in-house data system that measures pear category performance nationwide and third-party research to show retailers how they perform versus their competition.
Stemilt Growers of Wenatchee, WA was in the third week of harvest of Artisan Organics peaches and nectarines in early August and will be shipping well into September.
“It’s been a strong start to our all-organic peach and nectarine season thanks to ideal temperatures in southeastern Washington state,” Brianna Shales, Stemilt communications manager, said in a news release.
Peak loading season for Artisan Organics peaches and nectarines is until mid-September, according to the release.
Stemilt has a new pop-up bin display for retailers featuring Stemilt fruit with the Artisan Organics logo, according to the release.
“Display bins are an effective merchandising tool, but especially helpful with organic fruit,” Shales said. “Retailers can build larger displays of organic peaches and nectarines with these bins in order to drive impulse sales.”
Stemilt differentiates themselves with organic peaches and nectarines through their ten-year partnership with the Douglas family.
“The move to organics was a move to produce fruits with complex flavors,” Shales said. “Flavor is what consumers crave, and we’re confident that we’ll keep delivering on that promise with our Artisan Organics peaches until season’s end.”
Two Michigan apple markets have combined sales staffs and represent about 150 growers, which will result in around 3 million bushels of Michigan apple shipments due to the union.
Joining forces are Belleharvest Sales Inc. and Michigan Fresh Marketing.
The merger creates a sales alliance, resulting in the second-largest apple shipping operation in Michigan, according to a news release. In 2018, 10 million to 11 million of the state’s 24 million bushels were sold on the fresh market.
The apples will be packed at 7 facilities owned by Belleharvest of Belding, MI., and Michigan Fresh Marketing of Grand Rapids.
“This move is being made to take full advantage of both companies’ strengths and abilities,” Milt Fuehrer, Belleharvest CEO, said. “By merging the offices into one company there will be a robust sales department along with a wider distribution footprint.”
Michigan Fresh CEO Joe D’Ottavio said the partnership allows for innovation.
“The growth potential these two organizations bring to the market is exponential,” D’Ottavio said. “We have an experienced sales team, diverse varieties, and the ability to pack orders quickly and efficiently.”
The Belleharvest/Michigan Fresh partnership follows other changes in the Michigan apple industry. In January, Applewood Fresh Growers LLC of Sparta, formed to market apples from more than 11,000 acres in Michigan and other states.
Also in January, Riveridge Produce Marketing, a Sparta apple grower-shipper-marketer, acquired Sparta apple company Jack Brown Produce’s sales operation.
While we haven’t seen any estimate for Wisconsin potato shipments, reading between the lines it appears a fairly normal season is expected.
While some diggings got underway the last week of July, the main crop, which is russets, is just now starting.
The Wisconsin Potato & Vegetable Growers Association reports a decent crop with adequate rain.
Alsum Farms & Produce Inc. of Friesland reports Wisconsin has been shipping reds and gold potatoes since the first week of August.
Alsum is just starting to dig its new crop russets this week and will immediately start shipping its new-crop of fingerlings.
Alsum apparently avoided heavy rains in late July, despite other regions of the state being heavily impacted by strong storms.
Bushmans’ Inc. of Rosholt reports spring rains delayed planting schedules, but the crop has been rapidly catching up during the summer. However, the company notes it was catching up due to favorable weather and is cranking up its packing shed this week with russets. It has been shipping reds and round whites since late July.
Okray Family Farms of Plover reports too much rain put the harvest behind about 10 days for the normal starting date of August 1st.
A similar report comes from RPE Inc. of Bancroft, WI although it is reporting a great looking crop, although its about 7 to 10 days late.
Farmers Potato Exchange Inc. of Antigo reports a similar situation.