CARMEL VALLEY, CA -- At its annual membership meeting held here March 22, the Fresno, CA-based California Grape & Tree Fruit League presented Dennis Parnagian, president of Fowler Packing Co. Inc. in Fresno, with its 2010 Mentor Award in recognition of his dedicated service and committment to the California fresh grape and deciduous tree fruit industry.

There will be no exception to U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service rules on Chilean fruit grade standards.

David Holzworth, general counsel for ASOEX, the Chilean Exporters' Association in Santiago, announced March 24 in a brief memo to the trade that "USDA has decided not to suspend Table Grape Import Regulation No. 4. However, other alternatives are still under consideration."

Chilean importing interests had requested the suspension on humanitarian grounds to help Chilean growers recover losses from the Feb. 27 earthquake.

Utah Onions announced that it has entered into a sales collaboration with Granger, WA-based grower R.A. Rasmussen & Sons under which Utah Onions will now handle all onion sales for the grower's 800 acres of yellow and red onions.

"We are pleased to announce that we have made some upgrades to our sales program," Greg Rasmussen, owner of R.A. Rasmussen & Sons, wrote in a recent letter to the firm's customers. "We are working diligently to make this a smooth transition for all of our loyal customers."

The Florida Senate passed a first-of-its-kind food-safety bill March 23 that gives teeth to self-imposed regulations put in place by the state's tomato industry in the wake of a Salmonella scare two years ago.

A virtually identical bill is already through committee and on the floor of the state House of Representatives.

The margin was a tiny bit smaller than it was five years ago, but the California Cut Flower Commission has won a referendum that will allow it to continue in operation through December 2015.

Jay van Rein, a spokesman for the California Department of Food & Agriculture, which tallied the votes, told The Produce News March 25 that 30 growers approved continuation and 26 opposed it. Only about 60 of the state's 250 flower growers, those with annual sales of more than $500,000, were qualified to vote.

Corado's potato industry is mourning the loss of James T. Tonso, who died March 5 at the San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center in Alamosa, CO. He was 85.

Mr. Tonso was born Sept. 12, 1924, the eighth of nine children born to Joseph and Johanna Tonso of Florence, CO. Mr. Tonso and his wife, Leila, were married for 60 years and raised their family in Center, CO.