Best in Blue Book’s Biggest Movers and Shakers: Fall 2025 to Spring 2026 

In every edition of the Best in Blue Book Awards, a core question drives the analysis: which companies rose in the rankings, and which lost ground? 

The Spring 2026 results answer that question with unusual clarity. Across the 15 commodity categories covered in both Fall 2025 and Spring 2026, every single #1 ranking changed hands.  

In the same six-month window, the Best in Blue Book network expanded from 170 recognized companies to 237, from 19 commodity categories to 30, and 87 Fall honorees failed to qualify for Spring — while 154 companies entered the recognition list for the first time. 

This is what a dynamic, data-driven ranking looks like in motion. 

The biggest rise: Caruso Produce 

No company’s trajectory between editions is more striking than Caruso Produce, Inc. BB #:100737 

In Fall 2025, Caruso appeared in five commodity categories — Bananas (#4), Grapes (#6), Lettuce (#10), Oranges (#8), and Potatoes (#9). Solid recognition and one of the best of the best but not quite making it to the podium. By Spring 2026, Caruso had claimed five #1 rankings: Apples, Avocados, Bananas, Strawberries, and Tomatoes — categories they weren’t even ranked in during Fall — while their Banana composite score jumped from 13.7 to 23.6. 

That kind of across-the-board emergence across both new and existing categories isn’t the result of a single good month. It reflects a sustained deepening of verified trading relationships and exceptional performance — the precise pattern the Best in Blue Book scoring model is designed to detect and reward. Caruso Produce enters Spring 2026 as the most recognized company in the dataset: five #1 rankings, the most of any company across both editions. 

The most consistent force: Yes Fresh 

While Caruso surged to the top, Yes Fresh, Inc. BB #:324196 quietly became the highest-scoring company in the Spring 2026 dataset by average composite score — and added three new #1 rankings in the process. 

In Fall 2025, Yes Fresh held two category-leading positions: Bananas (#1, score 29.2) and Peppers (#1, score 27.2). Peppers was discontinued as a Spring category, but Yes Fresh more than compensated by claiming #1 in Carrots (score 30.6 — the highest individual composite score in the entire Spring dataset), Onions (score 29.6), and Bell Peppers. Its average composite score across all five Spring categories is 25.6 — the highest of any multi-category company in the edition. 

Yes Fresh is the clearest example in the dataset of what sustained data depth and next level performance does over time: consistent trading relationships, consistent reporting, and the kind of cross-commodity performance that the Best in Blue Book model rewards most heavily. 

The biggest climber: Mata’s Produce 

If Caruso Produce is the story of emergence and Yes Fresh the story of consistency, Mata’s Produce, Inc. BB #:105661 is the story of acceleration. 

In Fall 2025, Mata’s held solid positions in Avocados (#6), Onions (#15), Potatoes (#16), and Peppers (#14). Good, but not medaling if Olympic events. By Spring 2026, every one of those standing had shifted dramatically: Potatoes from #16 to #1 (a +15-rank climb, with a composite score jump of +10.9 points), Onions from #15 to #3 (+12 ranks, +8.9 points), and Tomatoes — a category it wasn’t ranked in during Fall — entered at #5. Apples, also new, came in at #3.  

The Potato jump is particularly notable: Mata’s is now the Spring 2026 Potato category leader with a composite score of 22.6, up from 11.8 in Fall. That kind of score increase — nearly doubling in a single cycle — reflects a significant expansion of trading performance and reporting depth. It is the single largest rank improvement for any company maintaining a #1 or top-3 finish. 

154 new voices 

The Spring 2026 edition’s biggest expansion story isn’t a single company — it’s the 154 companies appearing in the Best in Blue Book rankings for the first time. 

Several new entrants arrived with immediate strong composite scores: Allstate Produce, LLC. BB #:167514 entered across five categories and claimed three #1 rankings — Blueberries, Raspberries, and Watermelon. Blue Ridge Produce, Inc. BB #:420070 arrived with a category-leading 23.5 in Corn. Bee Sweet Citrus BB #:123033 entered as a significant force across Lemons, Mandarins, and Oranges with scores above 20. Dayka & Hackett BB #:189566 took the #1 position in Grapes. 

These are not companies that emerged overnight. They are companies whose trading histories — verified through Blue Book’s network over time — crossed the thresholds that qualify them for recognition in this cycle. Their arrival reflects the natural expansion of the Blue Book data ecosystem: more companies contributing data, more trading relationships being reported, more of the supply chain becoming visible. 

What the movement tells us 

The shift from 170 to 237 recognized companies, across 19 to 30 commodity categories, with complete #1 turnover across all shared categories, is not a story about instability in the fresh food industry. It’s a story about what happens when you measure performance with real data, semiannually, with no exceptions for incumbency. 

The rankings don’t carry over. The thresholds don’t lower. The model doesn’t remember that you were good last season. 

For the companies that climbed — Caruso, Yes Fresh, Mata’s, and dozens of others — that is exactly the point. Recognition means something precisely because it can be lost. 

View the full Spring 2026 Best in Blue Book winner list at bluebookservices.com/best-in-blue-book-spring-2026. For more on how the composite score is calculated and what drives movement between editions, visit: bluebookservices.com/best-in-blue-book-methodology/