WASHINGTON — Produce groups praised an Obama administration proposal to launch a pilot program that would allow Mexico to conduct cross-border trucking, saying it would begin the process of lifting damaging sanctions to the fruit and vegetable industry.

Earlier this year, U.S. and Mexico officials reached an agreement that would end the retaliatory tariffs that Mexico slapped on a range of U.S. products after Congress halted a Mexican trucking program provided for under the North America Free Trade Agreement.

Mann Packing in Salinas, CA, is expanding its staff with the addition of CHRISTINE KELLER as the new director of marketing and innovation and FERNANDO AZEVEDO as a national account manager.

Winston-Salem, NC-based Lowe's Food Stores Inc. is test-driving a new value-driven retail concept in its home state with the opening of two new Just$ave stores.

The 2011 California fresh fig harvest started in early May and is expected to continue through the end of the year, carrying over into the first half of January.

"With the combination of above average rainfall and warming temperatures, we anticipate outstanding quality and production," said Karla Stockli, chief executive officer of the California Fresh Fig Growers Association in Fresno, CA, in a written statement to The Produce News received May 10.

Steve Probstfield, a produce industry veteran with more than 40 years of experience working with fresh fruits andvegetables, has joined greenhouse grower Clifford Produce, based in Ruthven, ON as director of

California’s Salinas Valley has long been called the “Salad Bowl” of the nation as its 225,000 irrigated acres have been home to the country’s largest concentration of commercial vegetable production for decades.

And that is still the case. But today the contents of that salad bowl have become more diverse and even include some fruits. In fact, over the past two years, strawberries have become the top-valued individual crop grown in Monterey County, which encompasses the Salinas Valley. The valley itself stretches about 90 miles from north of Salinas to south of King City, CA.