Scottsdale, AZ-based Martori Farms, a grower-shipper specializing in cantaloupe, watermelons and mixed melons, recently expanded its specialty melon program and added two industry veterans to its sales staff.

Most of the major fast-food chains were starting to put sliced tomatoes back on their products by June 18, and Mexican tomatoes from FDA-approved areas in Baja California were being shipped again. It appears as if the tomato scare will not have the residual effect on consumers that the spinach crisis had two years ago.

A devastating hailstorm that tore across New York state Monday, June 16, could reduce the state's apple crop by as much as 60 percent.

"The storm swept across western New York," Jim Allen, president of the New York Apple Association in Fishers, NY, told The Produce News. "It moved from east of Buffalo across the main fruit belt area and hit south of Syracuse and the Hudson Valley. It was like the storm had radar for apples."

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration indicated that one traceback in the foodborne illness outbreak linked to red round and Roma/plum tomatoes is complete to certain farms in both Mexico and Florida, but stressed that the contamination may not have occurred on the farm, according to a June 20 Issue Alert from the Produce Marketing Association.

FDA is sending investigators to Florida and Mexico to look at the entire distribution chain to determine where contamination might have occurred. FDA indicated it believes the tomatoes were contaminated at a single point.

Table grape growers in the San Joaquin Valley generally are expecting their earliest varieties to start a week or more later this year than they did last year. Some call it "later than normal"; others say that last year was early and that this year is closer to normal. But with just a few exceptions, most growers who have grapes in early districts do not expect to start harvesting in any significant volume before the Fourth of July.

Almost without exception, growers are expecting good volume and good to exceptional quality.