The Colombian Pavilion at the 2014 Produce Marketing Association's Fresh Summit Exposition will feature new opportunities for popular products, including avocado, goldenberry (uchuva), pineapple, herbs and limes.

Visitors to the Colombia Pavilion will be able to meet with exporters as well as promotion representatives and learn more about the new developments allowing for successful export of these products.

“Today, as Village Farms celebrates 25 years in business, it makes us very proud to have built a foundation that will enable future generations to benefit from high-quality, sustainable, safe and fresh premium quality hydroponic vegetables,” Michael DeGiglio, president and chief executive officer of Village Farms LLC, , told The Produce News.

Val Verde Vegetable Co. Inc., a McAllen, TX-based grower-shipper operation founded more than 25 years ago on land farmed by the Schuster family for 80 years, has returned to an all-Schuster management team.

Frank Schuster Sr. came to the Rio Grande Valley from his native Austria in 1935 and quickly developed a prosperous farming and ranching operation as well as becoming a leader in the Texas produce industry. His son, Frank Schuster Jr., took over the company at the time of his father’s death in 1977 and formed Val Verde Vegetable Co. in 1987.

Abasto Properties LLC, a sister company of Abasto Corp., which has built and operates five wholesale markets in Mexico and South Texas, broke ground Dec. 31, 2013, on the San Antonio Wholesale Produce Market, and expects phase one to open in the spring of 2015.

They do one thing and they do it well. That is the mantra preached by Mike Davis, who is co-owner of Tex-Mex Sales LLC, in Weslaco, TX, with his dad, Marvin Davis.

“We have onions from January through August,” said the younger Davis.

During that time period the company grows its own onions in Mexico, Texas and New Mexico. “We do source some onions in the fall (from August through December) for several of our customers, but they are not our own.”

It is no secret that the Texas citrus industry has been shrinking over the past couple of decades as decreased acreage and consolidation has led to a smaller industry with fewer players.