In late July, Save-A-Lot and its parent company Supervalu made a move to strengthen its position in south Texas, partnering with Rafael Ortega, owner of Texas-based El Ahorro Supermarkets and La Michoacana Meat Markets, to form a new company, Adventure Supermarkets LLC. The company will own and operate six former Save-A-Lot stores in the Houston and south Texas markets under a co-branded format, El Ahorro Save-A-Lot, with a focus on Hispanic consumers. Supervalu previously announced plans to double the number of Save-A-Lot stores to 2,400 from 1,200 over the next five years. Half of those new

When Juvenal Chavez immigrated to the United States in 1984 from his native Mexico, he naturally looked for food products that were familiar to him. "My wife and I usually had to go to three different places to get what we needed," he said. “We went to one place for the groceries, another place for the meat and a third place for produce. It became my dream and vision to open up a store that carried all the products that the Latino shopper would want.” It took awhile for Mr. Chavez to reach his dream, but now he is the proud owner of Mi Pueblo Food Center, a growing chain in Northern California

In keeping with the consumer trend toward value and convenience in the face of the down economy, Village Farms has now added all new value-added packaging to its full line of tomato, sweet Bell pepper and cucumber retail product offerings. In addition, Village Farms has enhanced its packaging capabilities to service its value-added business at all its distribution centers in the United States and Canada to meet the growing demand from its customers. "Village Farms' value-added packaging capabilities are state-of-the-art and ready to handle volume," Doug Kling, senior vice president and chief

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent trade trip to China for the California Grown program highlighted the importance of the Chinese market for California products. While visiting a market in Hangzhou, China, the governor posed with a basket of California-grown grapes showcasing the high-quality California products available to Chinese consumers. In a 2009 survey, the majority of Chinese grocery shoppers preferred grapes from California to any other source, including Chinese-grown grapes. "From the beginning, we knew China had the potential to be a great market for California grapes,"

Miami-based M&M Farms, also known as M&M Tropicals, will be giving away an Apple iPad at the PMA Fresh Summit in Orlando, FL, and also will be giving away M&M calculators while supplies last. "We wanted to do something a little different this year," Manny Hevia, owner and president of M&M Farms, said in a press release. M&M doubled the size of its booth this year at the PMA and wanted to generate some excitement with the Apple iPad and M&M calculator giveaway, Mr. Hevia added. The Apple iPad will be given away in a random drawing at the end of the PMA show. To participate in the drawing

DELANO, CA — Castle Rock Vineyards, here, hosted an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday, Sept. 23, to mark the completion of what is said to be one of the larger solar electric generating system installations for an agricultural facility in the nation. A press release from REC Solar, which built the system, quoted Castle Rock's owner, Al Good, as saying, "REC Solar and Rabobank (which financed the project) provided us with a feasible option for making a solid long-term business that’s consistent with our vision of growing high-quality food using sustainable practices. The long-term