The first pallets of fresh Chilean figs, off-loaded at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, entered the domestic marketplace April 13. George Kragie, president of Western Fresh Marketing in Madera, CA, said that the company was the first to receive a permit under new rules announced in the April 4 Federal Register governing the fruit’s importation.

Bland Distribution Services in Donna, TX, announced April 7 the completion of an expansion to its cold-storage and dock areas. The distribution center broke ground in January 2008, and subsequent growth since its opening led to a need for expansion of the BDS cold storage space.

With the expansion complete, BDS now has 100,000 square feet of cold, dry, packing, dock and office space at the Donna facility. The cold storage space is divided into eight separately controlled areas with a capacity for 3,100 pallet positions.

Oceanside, CA-based Harry Singh & Sons, one of the larger growers of California vine-ripe tomatoes, officially announced Wednesday, April 13, that effective immediately it was ceasing its operations and would not be open for business or produce a crop for the 2011 season. Concurrently, Bill Wilber, president of Oceanside Pole Tomato Sales, which exclusively handled the sales for the grower that was its only supplier, announced that his firm was also closing its operations.

WASHINGTON -- The fresh produce industry will be giving back to the local community in an unprecedented way when the United Fresh Produce Association hosts it 107th annual convention May 2-4 in New Orleans.

Bad weather in Texas and Mexico over the winter caused problems for some crops, but onions, melons and most tropicals survived the atypical freezes that plunged deep into Mexico in February.