The Francis mango from Haiti has a special place in my heart. My very first job in the produce industry was unloading a truckload of watermelons by hand, and at the end of a long, hard day, my new employers gave me a case of organic Haitian Francis mangoes to take home and enjoy. Not only did I enjoy that case of mangoes (my first mango ever,) but also I fell in love – with mangoes, with organics and with my new job in the produce industry.

Now, 20 years later, I finally had the opportunity to visit Francis mangoes at the source in Haiti. In May of 2010 a team of partners from Whole Foods Market, Tropic Trade LLC, and TransFair USA traveled to Haiti to meet our growers, field agent and exporter face to face. The mango export season is coming late to Haiti this year, due to drought and other complications. We’re very excited that our first containers are beginning to arrive in stores! If you don’t already know the Francis mango, (AKA Francique or Fransik) it’s known for its light green skin and kidney shape, turning a deep yellow as it ripens. The Francis is known for its low fiber, richly flavored flesh.

Don’t miss this opportunity to support Haiti’s development of a sustainable industry – it’s as simple as enjoying a Francis mango from Whole Foods!

Due to the recent earthquake in Chile’s central regions, we’re anticipating a significant shortage of Chilean grapes within the next 10 days.

We expect the shortage to extend through early April and perhaps all the way to the first of May.

Here’s an update based on information we’ve been able to collect over the past couple of days:

Most important, our vendor partners in Chile report that they’re unharmed.

Unfortunately, their infrastructure didn’t fare as well and there will be an impact on fresh produce supplies, especially table grapes.

Packing houses have been especially hard hit, and we’ve received reports that many cold storage facilities and packing plants have been destroyed. Thousands of pallets of fruit that was packed and ready for shipment has been lost. Chile’s Sixth Region, where grape production is peaking, is reported to be a disaster, without electricity since the earthquake struck this past Saturday. The capacity to cool and hold new fruit is extremely limited.

On the farms, staff members are gradually returning to work, depending on whether basic serves such as power and water have been restored. Fruit that dropped in the orchard is not yet cleared and a full estimate of what’s been lost is incomplete. Many vineyards are reported to have been affected by the movement of the earth, some vines have collapsed and it’s still unknown how root systems may have been affected. The fall apple harvest is just getting underway, so it’s early to know what that impact will be.

As of this morning, we’re hearing estimates that it will be 10 days before the ports return to normal operations. As a result, we expect to see a 10 day gap in Chilean supplies that corresponds with that time frame.

In produce there’s always a variable factor driven by Mother Nature. In this case she really threw our Chilean friends a doozey.

We’re extremely thankful that the people we work with in Chile are in good health.

Lucky for us here at home there are a lot of terrific items in produce that provide alternative to grapes while supplies are scarce.

A few suggestions if you’re looking for something sweet:

• Yellow ataulfo mangoes are just about to hit their stride and are one of our most popular mangoes of the year. These are only available in spring, so don’t miss them!
• Maradol papayas are another tropical treat that’s currently eating really well.
• We’re just introducing a Whole Trade Guarantee pineapple at Whole Foods Markets around the country this month. It’s a super sweet variety from Costa Rica that we’re extremely proud of!

If you’re looking for something seasonal that’s grown in the USA:

• It’s all about varietal citrus! Murcott and Pixie tangerines are some of the best eating fruits of the season.
• Spring is nearly upon us and that means artichokes, baby broccoli, spring onions and new potatoes are all on their way to market.
• Strawberry supplies are greatly improved (remember the shortage in January from the Florida freeze?) and should be plentiful throughout the country.

Last year around this time I posted a short piece titled “It’s Summer in February” about peak of summer fruit from Chile. I wrote that some of our favorite deals on the produce team are those where we know the grower and have seen the fruit in production across multiple seasons.

Time flies, it’s a whole year later and it’s summer in February once again. It may be winter in the States, but we’ll soon be enjoying a taste of summer from a grower that we love.

As soon as we get through the holidays each year, members of the produce team start asking each other: “When will we see Juan Miguel’s nectarines? Are we on track for February 10?” As February gets closer Juan Miguel’s “nectos” become a regular topic, and by the time the fruit arrives in stores we’re beyond ready for the taste of sunshine.

Happily, we’re featuring nectarines from Juan Miguel Errazuriz again this year. Juan Miguel is a second generation grower, whose family has been involved in farming for the past 250 years. Errazuriz traveled the world for three years to research horticultural practices and technology before deciding on a type of fertigation system that supplies water and nutrients directly to the trees’ roots. Now, Errazuriz is one of only a few growers in Chile who uses drip irrigation to control the trees’ root systems and maximize flavor.

In addition to nectarines, Chile’s fertile Rancagua region produces grapes, peaches and plums. The Rancagua region is much like California’s central Valley in reverse, set between the cool and rainy south and the hot, dry northern regions of Chile. Well below the equator in the Southern Hemisphere, Chile is in production at precisely the same time that the US is out – meaning there’s little competition between the two. Rather, the two countries’ seasons complement one another and many stonefruit growers work in partnership across both hemispheres.

In addition to Juan Miguel’s nectarines, we’re excited this year about old fashioned cling peaches from Mauricio Cuevas. Cuevas grows and harvests modern varieties of old fashioned yellow peaches and harvests them at the height of the season. He’s focused on a growing philosophy based on “flavor and sensation” that prioritizes quality at every step, from cultivation to packing to transportation and storage. Expect to see these lightly colored aromatic peaches in stores later this month and into March.

We’re proud to feature these summer fruits from the South this winter. At the same time we’re eagerly looking forward to summer here in the North when we’ll have many more stonefruit offerings from more growers that we love.

As you may know, we’ve had a series of cold fronts passing through the state of Florida in recent days. We’ve received a lot of questions about how this weather affects supplies of products traditionally produced in Florida during the winter months. Here’s a quick recap:

Strawberry supplies will be tight throughout the industry for the next six to eight weeks. Florida is basically wiped out at the same time that Mexico is cool and rainy and California is cool with rain in the forecast. Not a great recipe for strawberries, but not that unusual for the season either! There will be limited strawberries in the marketplace – certainly less than we would wish for!

Happily, blueberry supplies (from Chile) are very good this year and are an excellent substitution for strawberries. Additionally we’re excited be offering organic mangoes in multiple markets for the next several weeks. Our featured mangoes are certified organic Kent mangoes from the Piura region of Northern Peru. About half of our Kents are certified by the Rainforest Alliance, while another portion is certified Fair Trade. The Kent mango is known for its sweet rich flavor, and smooth, buttery texture and is an excellent substitute for berries. Don’t let the Kent’s green skin fool you – it’s ready to eat when slightly soft to the touch! It’s not a strawberry, but it makes a great addition to any fruit salad or smoothie!

Florida tomatoes were also very hard hit in the most recent freeze this past weekend. It will be approximately 8 weeks before we see East Coast supplies of field grown tomatoes recover. In the meantime we’ll be offering alternatives from the hothouse.

East coast bunching greens were impacted by the freeze as well, but we expect these items to recover more quickly than tomatoes or strawberries. We don’t expect our customers to feel any discernable impact and we’ll fill in from Western regions until the East Coast is back into production.

Lastly, since most of our Florida citrus suppliers are very close to the coast, they were somewhat insulated from the coldest temperatures and we don’t expect a dramatic affect on citrus supplies at Whole Foods Market.

Our fingers are crossed that we’re through the worst of the winter weather – the 10 day forecast looks pretty good! – and that our growers can get back to doing what they do best ASAP.

Every summer season there are a few special items I just can’t wait to see in our stores, and Joe Soghomonian’s certified organic champagne grapes are on the top of my list come the middle of July. I’ve been eating Joe’s grapes for years and his champagne grapes are among my all-time favorite produce items.

This year we’re featuring Joe’s fruit nationwide and putting the word out about why we are feeling the love. Here’s the story:

We love champagne grapes for their unusual appearance and sweetness – small, deep purple grapes on tight clusters. The fruit is super sweet and the stems are so tender that they can be eaten along with the grapes.

We love the Soghomonians for being an authentic family farm. Joe and Johnni Soghomonian’s 540-acre certified organic ranch is located near Fresno, CA, in California’s Central Valley. Joe has been a farmer all his life, working on his parents’ farm from early childhood, eventually taking over the farm and growing it to its current size. Joe and Johnni’s daughter, Natalie, now supervises the harvest and packing of grapes and is the 3rd generation farmer on their land. FAMOUS for their champagne grapes, the Soghomonian’s also grow several varieties of table grapes as well as wine grapes. (We’re looking forward to later in the summer when the Soghomonian organic wine grapes will be ready. Fresh wine grapes are fragile and delicate, but a wonderful treat eaten out of hand!)

We love to satisfy and delight our customers! Expect to find organic champagne grapes at Whole Foods Market stores nationwide from late July through August. Enjoy!

On the produce team we’re always looking for the best fruit available in the market. Our favorite deals are those where we know the grower and have seen the fruit in production across multiple seasons. For the past two winters, Whole Foods Market buyers have trekked to Chile to learn more about the products and people of a country that provides so much summer fruit to our hemisphere when we’re out of season.

Late last month two buyers came home super excited about a high brix (extra sweet) nectarine from Chile’s Rancagua region that we’re bring into stores this week. Here’s their report:

Rancagua is an ideal growing region for stone fruits because of wide, well defined valleys and temperate conditions influenced by high pressure along the Pacific Coast.

This year we’re featuring fruit from Juan Miguel Errazuriz, a second generation grower, whose family has been involved in farming for the past 250 years.

Errazuriz traveled the world for three years to research horticultural practices and technology before deciding on a type of fertigation system that supplies water and nutrients directly to the trees’ roots.

Now, Errazuriz is one of only a few growers in Chile who uses drip irrigation to control the root system and maximize flavor. Additionally, Errazuriz shortens his trees allowing greater sun penetration for more even maturity, enhancing the fruit’s natural sweetness.

We expect to have this exceptional piece of fruit in stores from mid-February through March. Enjoy!

I put together this blog entry to explain the steps we took that led us to make this agreement.

Just before Christmas of 2007 I became aware of a slavery indictment in Florida related to a contract harvesting operation and we received some questions about whether any of our Whole Foods Market suppliers were connected to the persons named in the suit. Our suppliers were not connected to the indicted parties in any way, but the story got my attention.

Shortly thereafter, a letter from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) was forwarded to me, which indicated the CIW was looking for our support in making systemic change for tomato pickers in Florida. In the letter, the CIW outlined their concerns about harsh conditions endured by workers in the tomato industry. We’d been aware of CIW’s activism relative to buyers of conventional sandwich tomatoes but hadn’t been engaged with the CIW ourselves largely because we don’t buy the type of conventional tomatoes that the CIW has traditionally targeted.

As readers of this blog know, Whole Foods Market is a mission driven company, and our core values include caring for our communities and our environment. Farm workers and consumers are part of our communities and both groups deserve assurance that our Florida tomatoes aren’t produced under inhumane conditions. Given the December indictments and subsequent customer inquiries, we decided to take a deeper look at Florida.

At no time have I had any evidence to indicate that any of our Florida growers/shippers are involved in illegal labor practices. Our produce team has an inspector based in the Southeast who regularly visits farms. He has consistently reported that workers are not working under coercive conditions and that they have free access on and off the farms.

To be diligent, we implemented a series of 3rd party farm audits including common social responsibility criteria based upon the following standards:  SA8000, Rainforest Alliance, SCS Fair Labor Practices and Community Benefits and Food Alliance. Our criteria include checks for child labor, discrimination, disciplinary practices, working hours, compensation, health and safety, management systems and environmental protection. Concurrent with the 3rd party audits, a small team from Whole Foods Market made trips to Florida, both to meet with CIW members and to make spot inspections at various farms. During this process we found no evidence that our growers/shippers were out of legal compliance.

Although we’re confident that our suppliers are operating within Florida law, this process helped us see that Whole Foods Market has an opportunity to proactively engage in improving the situation in Florida by creating incentives to improve conditions for farm workers. We signed an agreement to support the CIW’s “penny-per-pound” approach for tomatoes purchased from Florida, with the goal of passing these additional funds on to the harvesters. We also know that there’s more that can be done. Our Whole Trade Guarantee program is an obvious place to start.

The concepts behind the Whole Trade Guarantee include meeting our quality standards, providing fair prices to our producers, ensuring better conditions for workers and caring for the environment. This program has been implemented in other countries and we are excited to have the opportunity to work with the CIW, growers and other groups to create a domestic purchasing program modeled on these concepts. Stay tuned as we work on this in the coming months.

The Whole Trade Guarantee Rose project began almost a year ago when three of us from Whole Foods Market made a trip to Ecuador to learn about Fair Trade certified roses. Right away we saw that Ecuadorian roses are gorgeous! BIG! STRONG! BOLD! After meeting with the rose workers and learning how Fair Trade benefits them, we were smitten. Before the trip was over we had the wheels in motion to bring a Whole Trade Guarantee rose to market on our stores.

This month (June ’08), we went on a follow up trip to reconnect with the grower and worker groups we met last summer and see how Whole Foods Market purchases are making an impact since we launched the Whole Trade Guarantee roses in March 2008. Here are my daily notes from the trip.

Quito is in the Andes at nearly 10,000 feet above sea level. I woke up on our first day green around the gills with a headache to match. Apparently that’s what happens to lowlanders at high altitude. My fellow travelers and our hosts propped me up and gave me herbal tea until I could walk and talk on my own. Ouch! What a way to start the day.

Once I got my sea (mountain?) legs, we headed South to the Cotopaxi valley. Ecuador’s landscape is absolutely stunning. Here in the Andes, there are live and dormant volcanoes on every side. It’s the combination of volcanic soil, elevation and equatorial light that give Ecuadorian roses their unique character. The plants here grow slower than in other locations, and the roses are bigger and stronger because of it.

Our Ecuadorian rose growers are as impressive as the landscape. FLO standards (Fairtrade Labeling Organization) are exacting! (http://www.fairtrade.net/standards.html ) It takes commitment to the concepts and values associated with ethical trade to make the standard work.

After meeting with a group of growers, we moved on to meet with one of the workers’ committees to talk about how Whole Foods Market’s business is affecting their lives and their families. (The workers’ committee or joint body is an elected group of workers that determine how their Fair Trade premium will be spent according to standards that are set by FLO.)

The projects that they told us about are really awesome:
• English classes for the children of workers and 70 more children in the community.
• Computer skills classes for workers and their families.
• Financing for household appliances such as washing machines, water heaters and computers. (Hot water and a washing machine is a BIG deal if you usually wash your clothes outdoors.)
• Scholarship programs.
• Financing for livestock purchases.
• A food purchasing co-op.

William, the president of the worker joint body, told us that their dream is to purchase five hectares of land that the workers at his farm will use to build their own homes on. With the money coming from our purchases, he believes they can achieve this within five years. Imagine what it means to build your own home, to have hot water, clean clothes, computers and scholarships for your children after living without access to basic necessities or higher education.

Days 2 and 3 rolled out as planned with farm tours followed by meetings with workers’ committees at each stop. We visited farms in Latacunga, Otovalo and Cayumbe. All of the visits were fantastic (beautiful roses!) and the workers committees all expressed how impactful the Fair Trade premium is for their families and communities. We got to see our Whole Trade Guarantee roses being packed at every stop.

This is one of those weeks when I can’t believe how lucky I am to have this job!

Workers’ committees are using the premium to provide dental, medical and pediatric care, nutritional programs, literacy programs…the list goes on. Improved housing was a key project for every committee that we met.

Some of the worker groups that we met with are developing formidable business skills from their experience managing Fair Trade premium monies. After one of our meetings today we realized that a new breed of entrepreneur may emerge from the workers’ committees. Who knew? It’s a remarkable side effect that I didn’t know to expect.

It’s midnight on Thursday and I’m still a little green around the edges. It’s clear I wasn’t born to be a mountain climber! In three hours we’ll get up and head to the airport for the 14-hour trip home. As usual, I wish I had more time to see more, to meet more people and to drink in the experience. At the same time, I can’t wait to see my own family and get back to sea level where I belong.

Take care,
Karen