This year, for the first time, all the watermelon farms associated with Keith Connell Inc. will have their food-safety procedures audited by third parties.

The watermelon market has been soft this spring with cool, rainy weather in the Northeast and bumper crops coming from Mexico, Texas and Florida. But Bob Gibson of Gibson Produce & Watermelon Sales LLC in Vero Beach, FL, believes things will turn around after Memorial Day as the early oversupply wanes.

Despite a slow start to the season due to a “terrible” market and bad weather in the Northeast, Brent Harrison of Al Harrison Co. Distributors in Nogales, AZ, thinks that as spring oversupplies dwindle and weather improves, the market will achieve at least “a happy medium.”

L&M Cos., based in Raleigh, NC, announced that it has expanded its Palatka, FL, potato operations.

The expansion features an additional 11,000 square feet of cooler space; a 35-40 percent increase in potato acreage; and a new optical sorter and high-capacity line, which will enable L&M to double capacity while efficiently grading out 95 percent of the defects by machine and the rest by hand.

To improve L&M’s one-stop shop capabilities, the facility can pack russets and all three colored varieties simultaneously.

Chiquita Brands International has signed a multi-year agreement with Disney to offer its products at Disney parks, resorts and its cruise line in Florida, Fernando Aguirre, chairman and chief executive officer of Chiquita, announced at a May 26 meeting.

The company has yet to disclose any details, but Mr. Aguirre referred to the deal in remarks at the 2011 annual stakeholder’s meeting.

Good things come to those who wait, and this season consumers will be eagerly anticipating the summer sweetness of Orchard View Farms cherries for longer than usual.

Although its unique location along the Columbia Gorge in The Dalles, OR, protected Orchard View Farms’ fruit from the severe winter weather woes that plagued some Pacific Northwest cherry growers, Brenda Thomas, president of the operation, is anticipating that the harvest will start late in the third week of June.