A group of Arizona produce and technology experts believe the time is ripe to launch an on-line produce auction once again.

A decade ago, the trade show convention floors were crowded with on-line trading companies expecting to make millions pushing the produce industry into on-line trading. Although buyers and sellers have embraced the Internet as an excellent communication tool in which to complete transactions, the buying and selling of produce between unknown buyers and sellers never materialized.

HOUSTON -- During the Produce Marketing Association's 2007 International Convention & Exposition, here, the 2007-08 PMA board of directors took office Thursday, Oct. 11. Chairman of the Board Bruce Taylor, chairman and chief executive officer of Taylor Farms California Inc. in Salinas, CA, is joined by three other officers and 23 directors. "We are fortunate to have Bruce's experience and dedication harnessed to lead our 2007-08 board of directors," PMA President Bryan Silbermann said in an Oct. 12 statement.

The Produce Marketing Association, the Canadian Produce Marketing Association and the United Fresh Produce Association plan to form a joint Produce Traceability Initiative to drive broad adoption of consistent traceability best practices throughout the produce supply chain.

FreshSense, a newly formed tree fruit marketing entity based in Parlier, CA, announced that it has received nearly $300,000 in federal grant funds to help fund start-up of the firm's new eco-labeled stone fruit product to be marketed under the brand name "Zeal."

Jim Desiderio is always thinking about the future.

The vice president of sales for James Desiderio Inc., the company founded by his grandfather in Buffalo, NY, and one of the larger wholesalers in western New York, said that the firm has now settled into the first floor of the new three-story, 18,000-square-foot office building it moved into at the end of July.

The second and third floors will remain empty for now, but they will give the family-owned-and-operated company room for future growth, both literally and figuratively.