FRESNO, CA " Loren Bollinger and Michael Jameson, founding partners of Tristone International LLC, here, have parted company, with Mr. Jameson continuing to operate as Tristone and Mr. Bollinger continuing business as Sun Crest-Bollinger International Inc., a company he formed nearly 12 years ago.

The parting was amicable, according to Mr. Bollinger. "I've known Mike for many, many years. We?re still friends."

Livermore, CA-based The Produce Exchange has implemented the FACT system, a proprietary taste-profiling process meant to ensure consistently superior-tasting produce, for its "Victory Garden? brand fresh produce.

?We decided that taste was a consumer proposition that people liked to talk about," said Martin Mazzanti, owner of The Produce Exchange, a distribution and marketing company that specializes in tomatoes, melons and dry vegetables such as peppers, chilis and cucumbers. "We wanted to get [taste] out there " to create a consumer brand based on taste."

BRONX, NY " For business to grow at New York?s Hunts Point Terminal Market, the facility must rebuild and expand, according to Myra Gordon, executive administrative director and assistant to the president of the New York Hunts Point Terminal Produce Cooperative Association Inc., here.

?To continue to function, we very definitely need to think forward with a plan to build a new facility," Ms. Gordon told The Produce News. She credited the market?s co-presidents, Matt D?Arrigo and Steve Katzman, for being "very forward thinking in understanding the market?s needs."

Dominic Russo always knew that he was meant for a life in the produce industry.

Mr. Russo, 26, has been buying and selling for Rocky Produce Inc. on the Detroit Produce Terminal for almost seven years. Before that, he put in some time at the receiver-distributor, owned and operated by his family, "every day in the summertime and after school ever since I was a little kid."

With a March 31 deadline, entries were still coming in for the Idaho Potato Commission?s Potato Lovers Month display contest when The Produce News spoke with Seth Pemsler, the commission?s vice president of retail merchandising, on March 30.

But with two days remaining, "right now we are sitting at 1,573 [entries], so we have basically doubled the best year we have ever had," Mr. Pemsler said.

As New Zealand apple growers harvested the season?s first Royal Galas, their currency hit a 10-year high against the U.S. dollar, setting the stage for reduced pipfruit volumes in North America relative to last year.