Jessica Flaim, Cindy Flaim and Brenda Flaim of R&R Flaim/Next Generation Produce.

California strawberry production has basically become a year-round proposition, but the early-December period still has sketchy supplies, which has led to a significant demand-exceeds-supply situation and skyrocketing prices for the current time period.

The market should ease up a bit over the next several weeks, but a strong market should take grower-shippers into the new-crop season.

On Dec. 5, the U.S. Federal State Market News Service was reporting flat prices in the $25 range, with California, Mexico and Florida each chipping in with minimal supplies.

For the seventh consecutive year, Southern Specialties was recognized as having the highest air cargo volume of Paruvian asparagus into the United Sates.

Rocket Farms Herbs Inc., a subsidiary of Monterey Peninsula Horticulture Inc., has acquired the assets of HerbThyme Farms, the largest cut herb producer in the United States.

The acquisition supports Rocket Farms Herbs' growth strategy to innovate new products, enter new categories and expand into new channels of distribution, according to a Dec. 7 press release issued by Rocket Farms. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Ken Gray, vice president of sales and marketing for the Bushwick Commission in Farmingdale, NY, told The Produce News that the company continues its focus on offering customers potatoes that have traveled the least amount of miles, are of high quality, offer retailers value and provide the savings that today’s consumers are searching out.

“We have been down here a long time,” said Mike Smith, president of Sigma Sales Inc. in Nogales, AZ. “At Sigma, we have been here for 20 years,” and many members of the Sigma team have been involved in the Nogales produce deal much longer than that.