The National Mango Board is seeking candidates for nomination for terms starting Jan. 1. Industry members are encouraged to submit candidate's names to the NMB staff no later than April 30. Once NMB staff members have a qualified list of candidates, they will submit them to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which will make the final selection.

As the Chilean kiwifruit season moves into gear in April, Chilean apples are already in stride and movement is good.

Tom Tjerandsen, managing director of the Chilean Fresh Fruit Association, based in Sonoma, CA, said that more than a third of Chile's fresh-apple exports to the United States are the Gala variety. About 16 percent, or 6.5 million boxes, each, are Granny Smith and Red Delicious. Braeburn, Red Chief and Fuji rank next with about 5 percent each of the total export volume.

Merchants Foodservice has become the newest member of Produce Alliance.

Produce Alliance, headquartered in Nashville, TN, is a management services group specializing in the procurement and distribution of fresh produce to the foodservice industry. With the addition of Merchants Foodservice, Produce Alliance now has 34 members with 37 distribution centers.

PHILADELPHIA -- An agreement reached last year that would relocate the Philadelphia Regional Produce Market a few miles south of its current location to the old Philadelphia Naval Yard is now under fire with the discovery of a bald eagle nest on the site and protests about whether construction of the market would limit the future of the city as a seaport.

The long path toward a new Philadelphia produce market took twists on March 22 that no one could have imagined.

SALINAS, CA -- A first-of-its kind National Ag Science Center is planned to be built on the Modesto Junior College campus in Modesto, CA. The projected opening is 2009, according to Michele Laverty, director of the science center.

The final report on spinach by the joint efforts of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and the California Department of Health Services offered much detail of investigative efforts but few revelations that have not already become public in recent weeks and months.

The report points to Paicines Ranch in San Benito County as the likely source for the E. coli outbreak. It's the first time that authorities acknowledged that they had isolated the deadly E. coli strain on Paicines Ranch, near a field the ranch leased to Mission Organics.