"We have strong and long-established business relationships with our retail and wholesale partners in Canada," said Nick Pacia, vice president of A.J. Trucco at the Hunts Point Terminal Market in the Bronx, NY. "These companies and their clientele are longtime supporters of our fresh Italian chestnuts from Avellino, Italy, and our kiwifruit, especially those from Italy and Chile."

At age 27, Timothy Linkletter, a partner in Linkletter Farms, a potato producer located on the outskirts of Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada, has his arms wrapped solidly around his career, his family and his faith. The company was incorporated in 1965 by his grandfather, Leigh Linkletter, and his brother, Garth Linkletter, but its history goes back centuries.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Department of Agriculture staff who work on programs such as specialty crop block grants, country-of-origin labeling and marketing agreements would be furloughed if Congress and the White House fail to reach an agreement on a government spending plan by tonight.

Congress has until midnight Friday, April 8, to pass a budget, or the federal government will shut down, except for essential employees.

So who would be open for business on Monday?

Dicey weather has been a wild card for California’s late-variety blueberry producers this season. Alexander Ott, executive director of the California Blueberry Commission, summed things up this way. “Right now, we’re concerned about weather,” he told The Produce News April 4. “We’re really curious how this will translate to pollination.”

After two years of above-normal precipitation in California, and with snowpack in the Sierra Mountains from the 2010-11winter season at 165 percent of normal, making it the third wettest winter in more than 40 years, California Gov. Jerry Brown on March 30 declared the state's drought officially over.

Anyone who has seen the new Florida citrus television commercials knows that the campaign is a critical hit. Whether they will drive orange juice sales or not remains to be seen, but the sharp, witty series of TV ads — pitched at modern moms, dads and suburban households — are a crowd pleaser.

But the new campaign was hardly assured of any such status when it was unveiled last summer at the annual