JMB Distributing Inc. in Nogales, AZ, which specializes in green beans, was receiving no product at all, at a time volume would normally have been strong and steady, when The Produce News talked to Harry Sbragia, the company’s president, Feb. 4.

“We had some sizeable freeze damage” from the mid-January cold snap that resulted in a loss of “a sizeable acreage,” he said. It happened to be a field that was just about to come into production.

GlobalGAP has been named to create technical benchmarking assessments for sustainability for the new Floriculture Sustainability Initiative. The announcement last month noted that GlobalGAP has been a reference and benchmarking standard for good agricultural practices in the floral and plant sector for more than 10 years.

The FSI group, based in Holland, was formed last summer to create “an international, sector-supported vision on sustainability by aligning global and local interests in the sector in a precompetitive way,” according to a news release from the group.

A new airport in Ecuador located a 23-mile drive east of Quito, opened for business Feb. 20 with one of the longest runways in South America, facilities to handle up to 6 million passengers annually, and plans for improved cargo facilities for shipments of cut flowers. The new airport, called Mariscal Sucre International Airport, the same name held by the old airport in Quito proper, will be served by 21 cargo airlines, 12 of them serving Miami.

Franklin D. Roosevelt used to say that dealing with the U.S. State Department was like watching an elephant get pregnant: “Everything takes place at a very high level, there’s a great commotion, and then nothing happens for 22 months.”

Calavo Growers Inc., which is headquartered in Santa Paula, CA, continues to work on improving quality and consistency in its tomato program “inside of this 2012-13 season,” according to Javier (J.J.) Badillo, director of diversified products in the company’s Nogales, AZ, office.

The company is also expanding the Roma side of its tomato business as well as its red bell pepper program, which is now in its second year.

It was a little like building an airplane while trying to fly it. Mrs. Bloom’s Direct, an Elmsford, NY, importer, opened a West Coast office last fall that also will be home for its new mass-market division, Thai Blooms. The office experienced its baptism by fire during the Valentine’s Day holiday.