TORONTO -- Christian Sarraino remembers his first day working full-time at Fresh Taste Produce Ltd. Canada.

"It wasn't what I was expecting," he said, joking about his start as a produce buyer last year. "I had been a salesman here part time for a few years while I was in university, but the switch to a full-time buyer and sales manager was pretty big. I really had to learn each and every customer's requirements so that I could tailor my buying and sales pitch to better fit their needs."

Liberty Fruit Co. Inc., based in Kansas City, KS, launched a revamped web site April 30.

Scott Danner, chief operating officer, told The Produce News May 5 that the web site "is a lot more friendly. The information is a lot cleaner. It's crisp and provides information on our food-safety efforts. And we get our golf tournament information out there. We have on-line ordering, people can do job applications on-line and you can see Liberty's weekly market updates for the last three years. It also contains our company history."

DELANO, CA -- Pandol Bros. Inc. is introducing what it termed a dynamic new package that will deliver greater convenience and time savings to consumers.

"This represents a ground-breaking change for the grape category and is directly in line with what time-starved consumers are seeking," Tristan Kieva, Pandol's director of business development and marketing, said in a May 7 press release.

California new potato acreage for 2010 is roughly on a par with 2009, when the estimate was 8,375 acres in Kern County.

Lee Frankel, president and chief executive officer of Salt Lake City-based United Potato Growers of America, told The Produce News May 4 that Kern County's acreage is down on russets. But Kern County potato acreage is up on red and yellow potatoes, fingerlings and small potatoes, he said. "There's a shift away from russets" among California growers, Mr. Frankel noted.

The Western desert melon deal starts in California's Imperial Valley before moving to Yuma, AZ, followed by Blythe, CA, and then on to Phoenix.

After the Phoenix harvest -- which starts in mid-June -- the deal continues to the Bakersfield, CA, area in late June and then Mendota, CA, area around July 1 for what is referred to as the West Side melon deal. The majority of growers in the desert wrap up harvests there by July 1.

I have spent the last 25 years of my career in grocery retail, and now I find myself on the opposite spectrum of the food chain with responsibility for sourcing food for an important agency in my community: the Roadrunner Food Bank of New Mexico. My job is finding good, quality food donations for the food bank to distribute to the growing number of hungry people in New Mexico.