Chunli Zhao, 66, the lone suspect in Monday’s massacre at two mushroom farms in the seaside town of Half Moon Bay, was to be formally presented with seven counts of premeditated murder and a single count of attempted murder in a criminal complaint filed by local prosecutors.

The hearing was held at the San Mateo County Superior Court in nearby Redwood City, California.

The complaint against Zhao also alleged “special circumstances” accusing Zhao of “personally and intentionally” shooting to kill.

California law declares that defendants convicted of murder with “special circumstances” can be eligible for the death penalty, but Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019 declared a moratorium on executions. The state has not executed a condemned inmate since 2006.

Also on Wednesday, U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris, a California native, planned to travel to the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park, site of the first of the recent deadly rampages. She was expected to meet with some families of the 11 people who were fatally shot in a dance hall on Saturday night by a gunman who later took his own life.

Coming in quick succession, the two shooting sprees left California reeling from one of the bloodiest spates of mass gun violence in decades in a state with some of the strictest firearm laws in the country.

Zhao was taken into custody on Monday evening outside a sheriff’s station, where police said he had driven shortly after the attack on farm workers.

The precise motive for the shooting remained unclear. Zhao had been employed by one of the growers, Mountain Mushroom Farm, and had resided at the property along with some other employees, according to a spokesperson for California Terra Gardens, which owns the farm. Authorities said early evidence indicated the bloodshed stemmed from a workplace grievance. The second crime scene, Concord Farms, is about a mile away.

Immigrant victims

Half Moon Bay, a community of about 12,000 residents south of San Francisco, is home to both a luxury resort and a low-income farming community. The shooting cast a renewed spotlight on hardships faced by the area’s farm workers, many of them immigrants from Latin America and Asia who often live in squalid labour encampments and toil long hours under poor conditions for extremely low pay.

The San Mateo County Coroner named six of the seven deceased victims on Wednesday and listed their ages as between 43 and 73. Charging documents listed the dead as Yetao Bing, Qizhong Cheng, Jingzhi Lu, Zhishen Liu, Aixiang Zhang, Jose Romero and Marciano Martinez Jimenez.

Jose Romero’s brother Pedro was also injured in the attack and was hospitalized as of Tuesday, the brothers’ cousin Jose Juarez told Reuters. Juarez said the brothers had immigrated from Mexico and worked at Mountain Mushroom Farm.

Two days before the Half Moon Bay killings, another gunman 615 km to the south opened fire at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio, a club frequented mostly by older patrons of Asian descent in Monterey Park.

Eleven people died and nine were injured in Saturday night’s gunfire, which some survivors and bystanders said they initially mistook for fireworks as the predominantly Asian-American community was observing the start of the Lunar New Year.

Authorities said the assailant, Huu Can Tran, 72, drove a short time later to a second dance hall in the neighbouring town of Alhambra. There, the club’s operator disarmed him before he could open fire.

The next morning, Tran shot himself to death behind the wheel of his getaway vehicle as police closed in on him south of Los Angeles, leaving investigators with few clues as to his motive.

— Reporting for Reuters by Alexandra Ulmer in Half Moon Bay, Calif.; additional reporting by Tim Reid, Gabriella Borter, Rich McKay, Brendan O’Brien, Brad Brooks, Jonathan Allen, Joseph Ax, Dan Whitcomb, Eric Beech, Omar Younis and Timothy Gardner; writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles.

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South Mill Champs, formed in 2018 from the merger of Philadelphia-area producer South Mill and Aldergrove, B.C.-based Champs Mushrooms, announced Tuesday it has expanded to include Loveday Mushroom Farms.

The merger is expected to allow the combined company to “expand its ability to supply fresh, high quality mushrooms to all major population areas in North America within 48 hours… improve production efficiencies across both companies and broaden its future planned compost and mushroom expansion plans.”

Also, “the geographic location of Loveday is complementary to our bi-coastal operations and will further enhance our fresh supply chain in the Midwest region of Canada and the United States,” South Mill Champs CEO Lewis Macleod said in the same release.

“The combining of efforts will allow us to expand our capabilities and leverage South Mill Champs’ infrastructure to further support our customers’ growth and ever-increasing demands,” Loveday president Burton Loveday said.

Financial terms of the combination weren’t disclosed in South Mill Champs’ release.

Launched in 1932 as Manitoba Mushroom Growers by then-building contractor Fred Loveday, the Winnipeg company rebranded with the Loveday banner in 1961 and today produces over six million pounds of mushrooms per year.

The company’s output includes white, crimini, oyster, portabella, shiitaki and enoki mushrooms for retail and foodservice customers from Alberta through to northwestern Ontario.

South Mill, which also formed in 1932, said the latest business combination comes “in response to increasing market demand as the health benefits of mushrooms become mainstream.”

The South Mill Champs business yields over 110 million pounds of mushrooms per year and “has experienced significant growth year over year, and distribution continues to expand as retailers and other customers demand high-quality, longer-lasting produce.”

South Mill Champs also includes distribution centres “strategically located in major metropolitan areas across North America,” including Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and New Orleans — a model it says has “changed the way non-regionally produced mushrooms were sold.”

Being able to guarantee “consistent and frequent delivery anywhere in our network within two days of harvest” means “longer shelf life and less ‘shrink’ for our customers,” the company said on its website. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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During the Commons standing committee on agriculture and agri-food’s online meeting Wednesday, representatives of the Canadian Mushrooms Growers’ Association raised “grave concerns” over the support CMGA members have received.

CEO Ryan Koeslag explained how additional measures put in place by Ottawa to assist farmers are not reaching mushroom growers, citing the $50 million in funding made available to help support temporary foreign workers.

The federal government offered $1,500 per temporary foreign worker to help cover costs associated with putting measures in place to lower the risk of the virus among the employees.

“Not a penny has been received by our farms,” Koeslag said, telling MPs that workers on mushroom farms were already in Canada and therefore their employers were ineligible to qualify for the program, despite still having to spend money on additional housing and other measures to maintain social distancing and other pandemic mitigation efforts.

The federal government is unlikely to be purchasing food surpluses from mushroom growers, he added, because their production was not altered until week four of the pandemic and the program is only available to manage oversupply beginning in May.

Other programs, such as a fund to help ensure personal protective equipment is in place, are prioritizing other sectors — meat processors, for example — or have not yet been rolled out.

“We don’t care where our funds come from, but as of now nothing has been received and we are going to enter into a territory of too little, too late,” Koeslag said during his virtual testimony to the committee.

Mushroom farmers are implementing costly measures to mitigate the virus’ spread out of their own pockets, at a collective cost of $250,000 per week amongst the association’s 52 members, he said.

While exports to the U.S. have increased, Koeslag said that is unlikely to be long-lived.

He echoed complaints from other commodity groups that currently business risk management programs are ineffective.

‘Direct support’

The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) filed a written submission to the committee outlining its thoughts on the government’s response to the pandemic.

“Further immediate measures are required for many agricultural producers to address cash flow issues and continue their operations,” SARM said. “The federal initiatives announced to date are a good start, but we are very disappointed more wasn’t provided to ensure immediate food sustainability by providing direct support to those producing our food.”

It also called for a more affordable livestock price insurance program, saying it is “critical” for new producers lacking the equity needed to borrow enough money.

SARM also called for changes to business risk management programs, particularly AgriStability, arguing it does not provide adequate support.

The organization called on the federal government to ensure the food supply chain remains operational.

“We would also encourage the federal government to focus efforts on developing federal health-based best practices specifically designed for the agriculture sector to use to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in their operations so they can continue to operate during a pandemic,” the submission read.

A need for broadband connectivity and the further exemptions from the carbon tax were also requested.

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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Highline Mushrooms of Leamington, Ont. announced Wednesday it will buy Prairie Mushrooms of Langley, B.C. for an undisclosed sum.

Highline, which has operated since 1961 and was taken over in 2016 by Irish tropical fruit marketing firm Fyffes, expanded later in 2016 beyond its five plants in Ontario and Quebec when it bought another B.C. firm, All Seasons Mushrooms, with three sites in B.C. and Alberta.

Prairie Mushrooms, in business since 1963, operates at five sites in B.C. and sells its products into B.C., Alberta and the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

Highline, which has so far operated in Western Canada using the All Seasons name, said Wednesday it will bring all its combined businesses under the Highline name once the Prairie Mushrooms deal closes.

Highline said the deal “further strengthens (its) leading western Canadian operations and enhances its position as both the largest organic mushroom grower and the only coast-to-coast mushroom grower in Canada.”

Duke Tran, president and founding shareholder of Prairie Mushrooms, will lead Highline’s business in Western Canada after the deal closes.

“Working with Highline allows us to combine our business with the clear leader in terms of technical expertise and quality levels in Canada and together we will be able to deliver exceptional, products and service to our customers,” Tran said in Highline’s release Wednesday.

Highline CEO Aaron Hamer described Prairie Mushrooms as “an excellent fit with our existing mushroom business in Western Canada given its trusted position with key customers and its significant organic growing capacity.” –– AGCanada.com Network

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Pennsylvania-based South Mill Mushrooms, which grows for distribution across the U.S. and into Eastern Canada, announced Tuesday it will combine its operations with those of Champ’s Mushrooms, based at Aldergrove in the Vancouver area.

The two companies said Tuesday their deal creates “one of the largest mushroom producers and suppliers in North America, servicing customers in all segments of the mushroom marketplace throughout the U.S. and Canada.”

A South Mill spokesperson said Thursday via email that the deal is expected to offer “numerous operational synergies” and the two companies’ customers “will benefit from the supply stability and depth created by this transaction.”

Champ’s, founded in 1998 by the Quach family as a small-scale operation, has since expanded to include 12 indoor mushroom farms in British Columbia, producing over 35 million lbs. of mushrooms per year for distribution across Canada and into the U.S.

The company employs about 600 people and sells conventional and organic white button, portobello, crimini and oyster mushrooms through retailers including Walmart, Loblaws, Save On Foods, Safeway and Whole Foods Market.

South Mill, based at Kennett Square, Pa., about 40 km southwest of Philadelphia, began in 1932 as a small mushroom farm operated by the Pia family.

The company today moves about 75 million lbs. of fresh, frozen and processed mushrooms per year, through distribution centres in Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston and Dallas, to points across the U.S. and into Montreal and Toronto.

South Mill supplies the retail market under its own South Mill brand, and also supplies foodservice markets such as the pizza industry, as well as frozen products and industrial ingredients for processors. Its network also imports and distributes vegetables and fruits for foodservice customers.

Terms of the deal between the two companies aren’t being disclosed, except that both firms will operate under the umbrella of the South Mill Mushrooms holding corporation and will continue to market their goods under the South Mill and Champ’s brands.

The management teams of both businesses “will remain active in the day-to-day operations of the business,” the companies said.

South Mill also emphasized via email that there will be “no plant closures, slowdowns or staff reductions​ of any kind as a result of this transaction.”

“Champ’s and South Mill share similar values, with a demonstrated commitment to and care for their customers and employees,” South Mill’s co-CEO Michael Pia said in Tuesday’s release.

“Together we will have production facilities on both North American coasts and a distribution platform to supply retail and foodservice channels nationwide.” — AGCanada.com Network

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Highline Produce announced Thursday it has bought Langley, B.C.-based organic mushroom producer All Seasons Mushrooms.

According to Irish tropical fruit marketing giant Fyffes, which has owned Highline since April, it will pay $59.1 million for all equity in All Seasons and to refinance its debt.

All Seasons grows about 8.6 million kg of mushrooms a year, operating two Vancouver-area facilities, at Abbotsford and Langley, and a third at Crossfield, Alta., about 35 km north of Calgary. It bills itself as the biggest organic mushroom producer in the West.

Leamington, Ont.-based Highline, meanwhile, bills itself as the largest operator in Canada’s mushroom industry, marketing about 26.3 million kg of mushrooms a year, and as the world’s largest grower of organic mushrooms.

Highline operates two plants at Leamington, southeast of Windsor, and one each at nearby Kingsville and at Wellington, Ont., south of Belleville, plus a distribution centre in Montreal. Fyffes described the two mushroom businesses’ geographic reach as “highly complementary.”

Highline and All Seasons, which together employ about 1,400 people, said Thursday their combined nine locations will all remain in operation with “business as usual for employees across Canada.”

Fyffes chairman David McCann said the two companies together will be “well placed to provide Canadian customers with a consistent supply of the highest quality mushrooms from coast to coast, while continuing to strategically supply U.S. customers with premium and organic mushrooms.”

All Seasons’ CEO Frank Moscone, who founded the company in 1997, described Highline as “a natural choice for All Seasons to partner with because we have a shared culture that recognizes the importance of our dedicated employees, customers and suppliers.”

Moscone will remain with the business after the acquisition, Fyffes said.

A Highline representative said Thursday there have been “no changes contemplated” to the branding of All Seasons’ product lines.

All Seasons markets to both the retail and foodservice sectors, with product lines including bulk and pre-packaged white, brown, Crimini and portabella mushrooms and “specialty” lines such as shiitake, oyster and enoki mushrooms.

The company produces on a short growing cycle, which it said allows it to eliminate the use of pesticides and maintain “Certified Organic” status.

Highline also bills itself as using “highly developed cropping techniques” to eliminate the use of pesticides and fungicides from its production of white, mini bella and portabella mushrooms. — AGCanada.com Network

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Fyffes, whose products are sold in Canada and the U.S. under the Fyffes, Turbana, Sol and Fresh Quest labels, on Friday announced it has paid $145 million for all equity in Leamington, Ont.-based Highline Produce and to refinance its debt.

With this deal, the Dublin, Ireland-based fruit firm gets the world’s largest grower of organic mushrooms and Canada’s “largest operator” in the mushroom sector, moving about 26.3 million kg of mushrooms a year.

Highline bills its cropping techniques as “highly developed” to produce all white, mini bella and portabella mushrooms without the pesticides or fungicides it says are commonly used in conventional mushroom production.

“We already operate some of the most state-of-the-art mushroom facilities in North America, and this arrangement will give us access to a global market leader in fresh produce,” Highline CEO Glenn Martin — who will still lead the mushroom business for Fyffes — said in a release.

Retail customers make up about 75 per cent of Highline’s sales, with the rest bound for the wholesale, foodservice and canning sectors. Of its current annual revenues, U.S. customers account for about 35 per cent.

“This transaction fits perfectly with Fyffes’ strategic objective of adding an additional product to its existing three, through the acquisition of an established, successful, integrated operator in a category with significant scale,” Fyffes chair David McCann said in the same release.

Founded at Leamington, about 40 km southeast of Windsor, in 1961, Highline put up a second Leamington farm in 1985 and expanded that site in 2007. It also bought existing mushroom farms at Wellington, about 30 km south of Belleville, in 1990 and at Kingsville, about 15 km west of Leamington, in 2009.

Highline, which today employs about 1,150 people in all, set up its Montreal distribution centre in the 1990s to serve Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

Fyffes, whose banana business dates back to 1888, maintains operations in Europe, Central and South America and in Florida. It bills itself as Europe’s leading banana company and as the largest importer of winter melons into the U.S.

Its expansion ambitions suffered a setback in 2014 when it lost out on a major merger with U.S. banana and produce marketing giant Chiquita.

That deal, which would have created the world’s largest banana company, was called off when the North Carolina firm instead accepted a US$1.3 billion cash bid from Brazilian fruit juice maker Cutrale and investment firm Safra Group.

Fyffes said Friday it will fund the Highline takeover using both new and existing bank debt. — AGCanada.com Network

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