As the branches of Washington and Oregon's pear trees continue to grow heavy with fruit, the Northwest pear industry is projecting a 2011 harvest of approximately 19.2 million standard 44-pound box equivalents, or 422,166 tons, of pears. This estimate is approximately 5 percent larger than the five-year average, and 8 percent larger than last year's short crop.

Mother Nature’s mixed bag of weather during the 2011 stone fruit production season will affect Washington state’s supplies in varying degrees.

"Virginia Grown," the state's locally grown initiative, was developed over 12 years ago. Kent Lewis, director of sales and market development for the Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, said that the program has grown tremendously since then.

SALINAS, CA -- Gary Andreasian has been promoted to president of Growers Express, the company known as Growers Vegetable Express when he started working there more than 22 years ago as the company's fourth employee, the company announced June 6. He previously served as vice president and general manager.

The Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market, home to 26 fresh produce merchants in a 700,000-square-foot wholesale facility, officially opened for business June 5. The new market is located at 6700 Essington Avenue in

A fierce outbreak of a rare strain of E. coli that has killed at least 22 people and left more than 600 people in intensive care is confounding investigators, who turned their focus to sprouts over the weekend but failed to confirm that as the source of the outbreak.