Produce industry veteran Andy Siegel has teamed with Oxnard, CA-based Gills Onions to support the company's growing product lines. Mr. Siegel and his national sales team of Chicago-based Fresh Connect will support Gills Onions on a national level with sales training, sales meetings and trade show support.

The Florida citrus industry was delivered yet another blow June 30 when canker disease was discovered in trees at the University of Florida citrus research grove at UF's Indian River Research & Education Center near Fort Pierce.

It is the very place where research and study is conducted on ways to stop the disease.

The find means that more than 10,000 citrus trees on approximately 100 acres will be cut down and burned to prevent further spread of canker spores.

"Home is the sailor, home from the sea, And the hunter home from the hill."

-- Robert Louis Stevenson, from his poem "Requiem"

To add to the poet's words: The produce man is home from the field. Joe Nucci died in his sleep late July 6 or early on the morning of July 7, leaving behind a loving family and a trail of friends from an industry he helped make better.

Mr. Nucci, president and chief executive officer of Salinas, CA-based Mann Packing Co. Inc., died of an undetected heart condition while vacationing with his family in Florida. He was 40 years old.

CLOVIS, CA -- It was "the right thing to do" and it made good economic sense, Pat Ricchiuti, owner of P-R Farms, said in explaining his reasons for installing a $6.4 million solar energy system on the roof of the company's 150,000-square-foot packing and cold storage facility here.

The system, which will generate approximately one megawatt of power and supply up to 60 percent of the facilitys electricity needs at peak usage, incorporates 7,730 solar panels, which almost completely cover the roof of the facility. Each panel measures 40 inches by 48 inches.

Oakdale, CA-based Discovery Garden's has ramped up production of its Sierra Gold gourmet potatoes.

Discovery Gardens, a subsidiary of California Oregon Seed Co. in Bakersfield, has added potato acreage by leaps and bounds in each of the past four years, with 410 acres in production this year and year-round production. The companys 71 acres in the Bakersfield area were harvested in June.

Discovery Gardens is in a joint partnership with Edison, CA-based King Pak, which grows, packs and ships the potatoes. King Pak is owned by Bakersfield-based Grimmway Farms.

WENATCHEE, WA  A new apple retail point-of-sale promotion will launch this fall, and based on experience, it promises a sales lift to go with it.

The Amazing Apple campaign will begin appearing in stores across the country this fall. Created by Get Fit Foods and sponsored by Washington state apple packers who represent a majority of that state's apple crop, the new campaign taps into consumers growing interest in living healthier, longer lives to increase apple consumption  and sales.