At the United Fresh 2012 convention in Dallas the United Fresh Produce Association awarded the Best New Fruit Product Award to Ready Pac Foods Inc. for its new line of fresh fruit and yogurt parfaits. The five-item line of parfaits, which will begin shipping this summer, targets consumer interest in healthy snacking and quality fresh foods, as well as growth in the yogurt category.

Less is more, the saying goes, but when it comes to having retail staff available (in the floral department, for example), less is just less. In other words, being stingy with staffing hurts retail sales. Leanness is in these days, but too much cost-cutting can backfire.

Registration for the 2012 International Floriculture Expo is on track to exceed last year’s totals of 1,750 attendees, 200 high-volume retail buyers and 190 exhibitors, show officials said.

EcoTulips in Brightwood, VA, has become a supplier of certified organic flower bulbs in the United States, it announced in a March 23 news release. The import firm, owned by Jeroen and Keriann Koeman, has been granted organic certification from California Certified Organic Farmers, confirming that the company’s import, warehousing, and sales processes meet the standards of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program.

A new fumigation operation to streamline customs operations and expedite delivery of flowers, vegetables and other perishables has opened at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago under a license from the Chicago Department of Aviation.

The temperature-controlled facilitycan handle 16 pallets of flowers at a time. The final step in the opening was certification by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which came in mid-March.

High-tech greenhouse floriculture growers in Canada’s province of British Columbia will get $1.6 million from the provincial government in carbon tax relief, the Ministry of Agriculture announced April 3. It said the temporary tax refund to both vegetable and floral growers will allow them to maintain their competitive edge and build British Colubia’s half-billion-dollar-a-year greenhouse industry.