As a way to distinguish early-season Chilean grapes and show a commitment to quality, growers from Atacama's Copiapó and Huasco valleys have launched the FreshAtacama quality seal. The certification ensures consistent product quality throughout the season.

Paramount Citrus, based in Delano, CA, and Rio Queen, based in Mission, TX, announced that they have entered into an agreement for Paramount Citrus to acquire the citrus assets of Rio Queen Citrus.

Sky Johnson is already maintaining a busy schedule with Borton & Sons Inc. as its newest sales account manager. President of Sales & Marketing Denny Annen said Mr. Johnson came on board Nov. 12.

"He did join us at the PMA convention this year in October to get some exposure and has already proved to be a valuable asset to our sales team," Mr. Annen told The Produce News on Nov. 28.

With production down by an estimated 25 percent this season, Snake River Produce in Nyssa, OR, is working with tighter supplies, according to General Manager Kay Riley.

The other side of the coin is that quality of the Spanish Sweets out of the Idaho-Eastern Oregon growing region is good and markets are strong, he said.

In general, “our program really hasn’t changed” at Lisa Inc. in Nogales, AZ, according to Sales Manager John Lichter. The company just continues “trying to do a good job and take care of customers and doing the best we can” to grow the products.

But while there may not be much new at Lisa, there are a couple of noteworthy exceptions.

Pickles have long been one of Lisa’s core items, and this year, “we increased our pickle acreage a little bit — about 20 percent,” he said.

A September 2007 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, compiled by Sophia Huang and Kuo Huang, states that U.S. imports of fresh fruit and vegetables have increased substantially, particularly since the 1990s.

Dominant suppliers are the North American Free Trade Agreement region for fresh vegetables, the Southern Hemisphere countries for off-season fresh fruit and equatorial countries for bananas.