8 Costly Peak Season Issues Crop Processors Should Avoid

Aerial view of two trucks filled with wood chips parked at a facility with a blue roof and stacks of wood, next to an unloading area.

How operational chaos during your busiest time drains profits—and the specific fixes that stop the bleeding Only 40-50% of harvested fruits and vegetables actually reach consumers. The other 50-60% is lost somewhere along the supply chain. That’s not a developing world problem. That’s happening right here in the most advanced food processing systems on earth. … Read more

How Motor Control Automation Can Transform Your Food Processing Operations

Have you ever walked through a food processing facility? If so, you likely saw an incredible orchestration of equipment working in perfect harmony. Conveyor belts move at precise speeds. Packaging machines filling containers with exact portions. Sorting systems separating products with split-second timing. But have you ever wondered what controls all this sophisticated equipment? The … Read more

The Challenges of Pricing and Contracting in Raw Fruit and Vegetable Processing – Part 1

A variety of fruits and vegetables, including grapes, broccoli, apples, melon, peppers, and lettuce, are displayed against a blurred green background—a perfect showcase for pricing discussions.

Part one of a three part series on raw produce contracting and pricing. The raw fruit and vegetable processing industry is uniquely complex, with pricing and contracting processes influenced by numerous dynamic factors. From crop quality to harvest timing and regional considerations, processors face a daunting task in adapting their systems to meet these ever-changing … Read more

Spotlight: John Roos, ExtendAg

A man in a navy polo shirt sits before a vertical garden adorned with white rocks and greenery, emblematic of Cultura Technologies' commitment to sustainable innovation. In the top right corner, a logo featuring a green leaf enhances the environmental theme.

Originally posted by Cultura Technologies John Roos is the General Manager of ExtendAg, a mission-critical SaaS solution for sourcing, management and visibility of raw fruit and vegetable crops that has been trusted by leading food processors for over 45 years. ExtendAg is part of the Cultura Technologies collaborative of companies. It’s been about a year … Read more

Digital Transformation Insights from Raw Fruit and Vegetable Crop Processors  

Aerial view of a large, organized orange grove with rows of trees extending into the distance, showcasing nature's digital transformation under a clear sky.

In the raw fruit and vegetable processing industry, the journey toward digital transformation is picking up speed. From our recent conversations with processors, it’s clear that industry professionals, specifically in agriculture operations, are eager to move away from traditional operational methods toward more integrated digital solutions. What exactly is digital transformation?  Digital transformation involves the … Read more

Product Spotlight: ExtendAg’s Load Sequencer – The Only Fully Automated and Optimized Load Sequencing Solution for Raw Fruit and Veg Processors 

A large industrial container is filled with tomatoes at a processing facility. A worker oversees the load sequencer as water is sprayed over the tomatoes. Conveyor belts are visible in the background.

As an Ag Operations leader at a busy produce processing plant, you oversee a yard teeming with trucks delivering loads of fresh, perishable produce. Your logistics dispatch team in the yard still relies on manual methods—whiteboards, clipboards, and walkie-talkies—to sequence hundreds of loads for processing every single day. As each day progresses, the yard becomes … Read more

Insights and Inspiration from ExtendAg’s Annual Team Meeting 

A group of people posing together like they're at a team meeting, some sitting and others standing, in front of a green "ExtendAg" banner.

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of bringing the ExtendAg team together for our annual in-person meeting. This year, we chose Lodi in the heart of California’s Central Valley, a region celebrated not just for its wine grapes but also for its diverse crops like almonds, walnuts, cherries, apples, olives, and various stone fruits. … Read more

ExtendAg: Leading the Future of the Fruit and Vegetable Crop Supply Chain

Aerial view of a tractor with trailers, key players in the fruit and vegetable supply chain, harvesting crops in a vast, orderly green agricultural field under a cloudy sky.

Author: John Roos, General Manager, ExtendAg As we continue our journey into 2024, I’d like to reflect on ExtendAg’s evolution and look ahead to the priorities that are on our radar this year and beyond.   Since joining ExtendAg in early 2023, my focus has been on leveraging the strong foundation the company has established over … Read more

The Evolution of AgTech

Magazine cover titled "ExtendAg on AgTech" features a windmill silhouette against a blue sky. Subheading: "The Evolution of AgTech" with a small circle highlighting cutting-edge ag tech and grower management software.

“If you follow AgTech news, not a single day goes by without yet another announcement from a startup or large tech company highlighting their groundbreaking innovative product that targets a key piece of the agricultural supply-chain. All this investment activity and technical innovation has even attracted the eyes of the big tech firms—such as Google … Read more

Postmodern ERP: A Pragmatic Approach for Ag Processors

Abstract image of two people with the text "ERP" and hexagons showcasing various icons, like graphs, gears, ag processors, and currency symbols, set against a blurred office backdrop.

Postmodern ERP: A Pragmatic Approach for Ag Processors Postmodern ERP is the latest iteration of Gartner’s thinking on the best strategies to be adopted when implementing enterprise-wide solutions. It’s a response to the inexorable rise of the monolithic single vendor, single solution approach that has resulted in a number of high-profile failures with massive hits … Read more