New York state apple growers have voted decisively to reauthorize the New York State Apple Marketing Order, with 71 percent of the ballots cast in favor of re-certifying the order for another eight years.

The referendum was carried out over the past month and certified April 19 by Nathan L. Rudgers, New York state commissioner of agriculture.

The United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association has announced the produce industry leaders nominated to serve on its 2005 board of directors. Ascending to chairman of the board is Nicholas J. Tompkins, president and CEO of Apio Inc. in Guadalupe, CA.

Mr. Tompkins has been CEO of Apio since its founding in 1979. The company is a manufacturer and marketer of pre-cut value-added vegetables to the club store, retail and foodservice sectors, as well as an exporter of fruits and vegetables throughout the world.

Isador (Izzy) Albinder, owner of Hudson River Fruit Distributors in Milton, NY, died April 5 at the age of 91.

Mr. Albinder, who had homes in Poughkeepsie, NY, and Hollywood, FL, was born in Russia in 1914 and came to the United States in 1930. He settled in Brooklyn, NY, where he went into business with a small retail fruit store in 1941, selling apples first from a pushcart, then from a horse-drawn wagon and ultimately from a truck.

More than 1 million packages of Irwindale, CA-based Ready Pac Produce Inc.'s European-style salads will move through supermarket shelves this month as Ready Pac's Your Ticket to the Movies promotion entices consumers to eat their greens.

The free movie ticket promotion rewards purchases of any three Ready Pac European-style salads made from April through the end of July.

THERMAL, CA " One of the larger table grape grower-shipper operations in the Coachella Valley " Rivera Vineyards " has removed itself from the 2005 fresh table grape shipping season, which is set to start in early May.