California strawberry shipments as of mid-March were running significantly ahead of the same date a year ago, the difference being primarily due to good growing weather this year in contrast to cold and wet weather a year ago.

Kristin Shafer recently joined the sales team at Salinas, CA-based The Nunes Co. She will be handling the company’s full line of organic sales.

Shafer has been working in the produce industry for nearly 11 years. Prior to joining The Nunes Co., she worked for New Star Fresh Foods/Organic Girl, also based in Salinas, for six years.

Does a controlled atmosphere during transit with a high concentration of carbon dioxide, such as found in the Tectrol system from TransFresh Corp., help reduce the incidence of decay in strawberries?

The answer is yes, according to Elizabeth (Beth) Mitcham, a researcher at the University of California-Davis Department of Plant Science and director of the UC-Davis Post Harvest Technology Center.

The Canadian Produce Marketing Association’s 2014 Annual Convention and Trade Show will take place April 2-4 in Vancouver, BC, at the Vancouver Convention Centre. The CPMA Convention and Trade Show Organizing Committee is led by 2013/2014 CPMA Chair Walt Breeden of The Oppenheimer Group, Convention and Trade Show Chair Scott Fairbairn of Thrifty Foods, and Co-Chair and BCPMA Liaison Margie Schurko. The Committee along with the dedicated CPMA staff and CPMA board of directors are sure to put on an impressive event.

The Chilean plum season will finish with a flourish at Oppy, when the exciting new fruit known as RR1 arrives in April.

RR1 is a late-harvesting, long-storing plum with yellow flesh that transforms to light red as it ripens. First planted in Chile 2010, RR1 follows the popular Angelino variety in availability and can sustain the plum season well into May.

FirstFruits Marketing of Washington ended its fourth annual Take a Bite Out of Hunger program at select retailers with a collective donation of 200,000 pounds of apples to local food banks. This brings the total program donation to just under 1 million pounds over four seasons.