Based in Los Angeles, CA, Progressive Produce grows, packs and ships a wide variety of year-round produce, farming thousands of acres throughout North and South America. The company's products include asparagus, potatoes, onions, sweet onions, yams, citrus and chili peppers.
Progressive also offers year-round supplies of organic items including onions, sweet onions, asparagus, citrus, and potatoes, all sold under the Nature's Bounty Organic brand.
With the 2021 Organic Produce Summit (OPS) around the corner, here's a sneak peek at some of the products and packaging that Progressive will be highlighting at the show.
Mim's famous sweet potatoes
Starting this fall, Progressive will be adding baby yams to its year-round organic offerings under its new brand, Mim's Famous Sweet Potatoes.
Inspired by Mim, the beloved grandma of one of Progressive's team members, it has taken her tradition of serving a sweet potato dish at every meal and put it in a small package full of flavor and variety.
"Sweet potatoes are rapidly gaining market share. And like potatoes before it, growth will come from smaller and specialty varieties," said Jordan Barta, sales manager.
The organic mini medley pack comes in 1.5-lb. bags and has up to four different types of sweet potatoes including the Beauregard Orange, Garnet Red, Bonita White and Murasaki varieties.
Because of their petite size, consumers can quickly prepare and cook a wide range of meaningful, healthy sweet potato snacks. Whether baked, roasted, fried or mashed, sweet potatoes are a simple, delicious and nutritious way to celebrate family traditions and always taste like home.
Organic Heirloom navel oranges
The fall and winter months also kick off Progressive's extensive citrus program which includes organic Navel oranges, organic Heirloom navels, organic grapefruits, organic lemons and organic specialty citrus.
Howard Nager, citrus category manager and VP of business development and marketing said, "We will see an expanded organic Heirloom Navel orange program towards the end of the year and into the first quarter of 2022."
Progressive's organic Heirloom Navels are an Old-Line Washington variety grown on 100-year-old trees by a third-generation family farm located in Bakersfield, CA.
The perfectly sweet and delicious organic Heirloom Navels will be packed in 3-lb. bags with bulk sizes also available.
100 percent recyclable paper packaging
“At Progressive Produce, sustainability is the way we manage and operate our business to best serve our customers, care for the environment and drive long-term prosperity,” says Oscar Guzman, director of marketing and sales.
“Our new sustainability and social responsibility initiative, Rooted, focuses on people, planet, and practices. We're doing our part to build a better tomorrow by ensuring workplace wellbeing, giving back to our community, minimizing our carbon footprint and utilizing sustainable growing, packing and shipping practices.”
As part of Rooted, Progressive Produce is expanding its earth-friendly packaging options by offering more sustainable solutions. OPS attendees can check out the company’s 100 percent recyclable paper packaging which is available in 1.5-lb. bags for red, gold and medley baby potatoes and 3-lb. bags for organic russet, red and gold potatoes.
"We are very proud of this accomplishment," Guzman said. "We're not just putting potatoes in paper bags; we are packing our potatoes in an efficient way that no one else has been able to do. This helps minimize our carbon footprint through biodegradable waste and minimal resources."
Additional sustainable packaging offerings include compostable tray packs, compostable PLU stickers and fully recyclable bales and corrugated cartons.
On the horizon, Progressive plans to offer sustainable packaging options for some of its other commodities, including a mesh and wine glass label that completely bio-assimilates, leaving no micro-plastic behind.
