Brooks Tropicals LLC, based in Homestead, FL, achieved food-safety certified audits across the board for its starfruit category.

Holiday greens companies and Christmas tree growers are cautiously optimistic about the sales season ahead, in an economy that still struggles but seems to be making progress. They make the point that even in tough times, people will continue their holiday traditions.

The organic apple and pear harvest has begun in California. As in past years, the start of the domestic harvest has been greeted with strong demand from the organic market, as retailers vie to promote the freshest organic fruit of the summer.

Most of the eastern United States enjoyed an unusually warm winter and early spring, leading many crops to come on early in 2012. The state of Connecticut has shared in that scenario.

The Chuck Olsen Co. in Visalia, CA, which increased grape acreage in 2012 with the addition of new growers, will once again see additional growth in acreage from “two growers we have picked up,” according to Jeff Olsen, vice president of the company. That will contribute to an anticipated increase in grape volume for the 2012 season of roughly 20 percent.

“Last year, we ended up with almost 900,000” boxes of grapes, Mr. Olsen said. “We are hoping we will get somewhere around 1.1 [million] by the end of this year.”

GLOUCESTER CITY, NJ — Sustainability is a term Leo Holt likes to use — and not just as a buzzword. The president of Holt Logistics Corp. applies the approach throughout his business network and in his approach to the world at large.