Feeling the need for a citrus organization, a group of citrus growers held their first meeting on June 1,1929. Just a few years later, in 1932, the first official meeting of the Edinburg Citrus Association was held in a school auditorium in Edinburg, Texas.The Edinburg Citrus Association has a grower membership throughout the Rio Grande Valley from the Gulf Coast westward. This loyal membership is the backbone of the company and represents thousands of acres of sweet and juicy Texas Red Grapefruit and Oranges.As the oldest and only surviving citrus fruit cooperative in Texas founded in the 1930s and 1940s, the Edinburg Citrus Association takes its responsibility seriously — both to its grower members and to its customers. Steeped in history but focused on the future, ECA has grown and evolved through the years as one of the leading packinghouses of the Texas Citrus Industry.

Michael Angelo's was founded in 1982. Michael Angelo's Gourmet Food produces fresh and frozen Italian entrees, snacks, appetizers, and desserts as well as pasta and pizza sauces. The company, which has no warehouse, claims to cook its meals from scratch every day and ship them to stores within 36 hours. Its products are available in major US food retailers, specialty food stores, and discount stores, including Albertson's, BJ's Wholesale Club, Publix, Whole Foods, Safeway, and SAMS CLUB.

Korbel produces champagnes and other wines from the fruit of its its vineyards and the products of its winery and distillery along California's Russian River in western Sonoma County. Long noted for its premium champagne and less expensive versions of the sparkling wine, Korbel also bottles a cabernet sauvignon from grapes grown in the nearby Alexander Valley, and a chardonnay. Korbel diversified by buying three wineries in Sonoma County; and a line of beer and ale -- Russian River Brewing -- which was eventually sold to its head brewmaster.

Formerly Sodexho Alliance, Sodexo is the world's #2 contract foodservice provider (after Compass Group), with operations in about 80 countries. Its subsidiaries offer corporate foodservice and hospitality services, vending services, and foodservices for educational institutions and other public-sector clients. Other operations include event concessions, health care foodservices, and such outsourced on-site service solutions as cleaning, groundskeeping, and laundry. Its US-based subsidiary, Sodexho, Inc., is one of the largest contract foodservice providers in North America. Sodexo company has some 33,900 service sites worldwide.

Alfred Nickles Bakery Incorporated he founded, Alfred Nickles Bakery, now operates three large-scale bakeries in Ohio, as well as some 40 distribution centers in five Midwestern states (Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia). It runs a fleet of more than 600 delivery trucks. It makes and delivers fresh-baked goods -- bagels, bread, breadsticks, dinner rolls, hoagies, hot dog and hamburger buns, cakes, pastries, sweet rolls, donuts -- to retail food and foodservice operations in the Midwest.

Peter Pan Seafoods, whose Never-Never Land is Alaska, harvests, processes, freezes, and markets wild fish and shellfish pulled from icy waters surrounding the state. Peter Pan Seafoods company offers cod, crab, halibut, pollock, tuna, mahi, swordfish and salmon to the US retail and foodservice industries. Its brands include Demings and Double Q. Peter Pan also makes canned salmon and surimi (crab-flavored processed fish). Peter Pan Seafoods company's products are distributed through food retailers and restaurant suppliers in the US, Europe, and Asia.

BelleHarvest Sales company sells fresh vegetables and fruits to global customers; it primarily operates in the eastern US. BelleHarvest Sales, formed by a group of Michigan growers in 1957, provides storage, packing, delivery, and marketing services. Its products include apples, peaches, plums, and asparagus. BelleHarvest Sales is the sales and marketing arm of parent Belding Fruit Storage. It is also the exclusive marketer of produce from Umlor Orchards, Roossinck Fruit Storage, Gavin Orchards, and Timpson Orchards.

Carnivores have a friend in JBS. With a slaughter capacity of 73,900 cattle a day, the company is the world's largest beef processor and exporter. It distributes its products worldwide. In addition to fresh and processed beef and pork (it is the third largest pork producer in the US), JBS sells cooked beef, canned goods, and ready-to-eat meals; it also sells hides and other cattle parts. JBS markets its beef domestically under the Friboi brand. It also owns a majority of US poultry firm Pilgrim's Pride. The company's top export markets are Mexico, Russia, and the EU. JBS is in the process of a major growth phase, buying up meat operations in the US, Europe, and Australia.

Seaboard Foods is one big pork project, but taxpayers should take heart -- the government has nothing to do with it. A subsidiary of Seaboard Corporation, the company produces and supplies fresh and frozen pork products to food processors, foodservice operators, and distributors across the US. It raises about 4 million hogs at facilities in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas; Seaboard Foods has processing plants Montana, Oklahoma, and Utah. It sells bulk products mostly to processors to make such items as bacon, lunchmeats, and sausage; Seaboard Foods also sells processed pork under such brands as Daily's and Prairie Fresh. In addition, the company supplies private-label products for other customers.

Spangler Candy Company is a family-owned private company manufacturing candy since 1906. Our products include lollipops, candy canes, and marshmallow candies. Spangler Candy Company manufacture and market the licensed brand names of Jelly Belly, Shrek, Sour Punch, Smarties, and Cinnabon on select candy cane items. Spangler Candy Company produces 10 million Dum Dums and about 3 million candy canes a day, which are sold throughout the US and worldwide. In addition to its own brands, it also makes products for some of the world's largest candy companies. It has licensing agreements with Disney (for Disney-character candy) and Jelly Belly Candy (to make jelly-bean-flavored candy canes). Spangler Candy was founded in 1906 by Arthur and Omar Spangler, whose family still owns the company.

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