Dan Kelly, the 51-year-old assistant manager of the Washington Growers Clearing House in Wenatchee, WA, is expected to be released from Central Washington Hospital by this weekend (June 28-29). Mr. Kelly was admitted to the facility in critical condition the afternoon of June 25 following a bicycle accident.

WGCH Manager Kirk Mayer told The Produce News, "The report we have from the hospital [on June 26] is that he is in satisfactory condition."

Mike Mizokami, founder of the "SunFed" label and a pioneer in year-round production for the U.S. market who operated farms in both the United States and Mexico, died June 12 in Chandler, AZ. He was 89.

New York fruit growers initially believed that the June 18 hailstorm may have caused as much as 60 percent crop loss, but a week later, reports indicate that while losses were major, they are not as bad as first thought.

"Assessments at this time are that statewide, approximately 6.5 [million] to 7 million bushels of apples have been damaged or destroyed in one degree or another," Jim Allen, president of the New York Apple Association in Fishers, NY, told The Produce News June 24.

WASHINGTON -- With Food & Drug Administration investigators searching for clues in Florida and Mexico as part of the traceback investigation involving tomatoes contaminated with Salmonella, some people are questioning what has gone wrong with the probe into the outbreak that has sickened more than 600 people, and which has taken more than three weeks.

WASHINGTON -- The Food & Drug Administration sent investigators this past weekend (June 21-22) to Mexico and Florida to test farms and packinghouses that turned up as leads, but there is still no word on what caused the Salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 600 people so far.

FDA sent teams of multi-disciplinary experts to both Mexico and Florida to conduct joint inspections on the farms and other tomato handling sites throughout the distribution chain. FDA has yet to announce any findings from the trips.

For many years, the California garlic industry has faced stiff competition from low-priced garlic from China. As a result, the acreage of garlic planted in California declined steadily and sharply.

But garlic marketers say that while price-sensitive buyers still turn to Chinese garlic, there are customers that are loyal to California-grown product, primarily because of its superior flavor profile.