After an outstanding first half of the citrus season, Al Finch, vice president of sales and marketing for Florida Classic Growers in Lake Hamilton, FL, expects the second half to be just peachy. Literally.

"Albert's Organics has handled organic items since 1982, when we first opened our doors," said Simcha Weinstein, director of marketing for Albert's Organics, a leading wholesale distributor headquartered in Santa Cruz, CA. "As our name would suggest, organic is not something we decided would be a nice addition to our product mix as it became popular: It's the foundation of our business and always has been. Rather than follow the popular trends, we have lead the way in pioneering the distribution and availability of organic foods across the country."

Winter weather was a concern but did no damage to the Duda Farm Fresh Foods Inc. crop in Visalia, CA, according to Sales Manager Paul Huckabay.

While the crop has produced more small- and medium-sized Navels, clementines and Minneola tangelos than usual, Mr. Huckabay said, “Since the first of the year there has been some minimal fruit growth, but we do not expect to see any significant change in the size profile over the next several weeks. On the other hand, lemons and Meyer lemons have provided more of an even distribution of sizes.”

“We continue to do well with our unpeeled bulk garlic cloves,” Bruce Klein, director of marketing for Maurice A. Auerbach, in Secaucus, NJ, told The Produce News. “Organic garlic is hearty, it doesn’t need refrigeration and it can be displayed in secondary locations in grocery stores.”

Mr. Klein added that jarred peeled organic garlic is also strong at retail today.

An early-January cold snap did very little damage to the Florida citrus crop of DNE World Fruit Sales and in fact should make for sweeter, stronger fruit in the second half, according to Kevin Swords, citrus sales manager for the Fort Pierce, FL-based company.