“It has been a very busy past year-and-a-half here,” Joe Spano, vice president of sales for Mucci Farms, a leading producer of greenhouse vegetables in Leamington, ON, told The Produce News in late January. “We have constructed and planted an additional 45 acres of new high-tech glass greenhouses, and we got them planted on time, despite all kinds of weather systems and construction issues.”

On Dec. 20, Crowley Maritime Corporation announced that it had made organizational realignments within its shipping and logistics team, effective Jan. 1.

Nelly Yunta, who previously served as vice president of U.S. imports, customs brokerage and consulting for the company’s Miami-based Customized Brokers’ customs brokerage subsidiary, has been promoted to the position of vice president of sales, marketing and customer care for Crowley Maritime.

The Produce News has learned that Dave Parker, previously director of marketing for Scattaglia Growers & Shippers LLC in Traver, CA, has left SGS to take a position with Rivermaid Trading Co. in Lodi, CA.

Neither Mr. Parker nor Rivermaid executives were immediately available for comment.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ — Building on the success achieved last year when the New Jersey Department of Agriculture’s State Agricultural Convention was held along with the Vegetable Growers Association of New Jersey’s convention and trade show, the two groups held their second annual joint event Feb. 5-7 here at the Trump Taj Mahal, drawing excellent attendance and enthusiastic crowds.

Warm weather in November and cold weather in December and January have kept the Romaine market red hot, and most leaf items are also still showing very strong demand. However, broccoli and cauliflower couldn’t hold their demand as their prices soared and those markets have come way down.

Chris Herlihy, who works on the sales desk at Fresh Kist Produce in Salinas, CA, told The Produce News Feb. 5 that broccoli and cauliflower prices were down in the $7-8 range and having trouble holding that number. Just 10 days earlier, both items were trading north of $20.

BOISE, ID — The 75-year-old Idaho Potato Commission has historically focused its marketing efforts on the domestic market, but about eight years ago the group began to undertake an international market development program.