WATSONVILLE, CA -- California Giant Berry Farms has hired a general manager for their blueberry packing operations. Evan Pence was hired Feb. 1 to fill the newly created position that will direct and coordinate blueberry packing operations and work with a variety of managers-supervisors on a daily basis, expanding the company's position in the blueberry industry.

His initial focus will be overseeing the blueberry packing operation in Oregon, working with the existing team of Patrick Garrison and Silverio Ramos in that growing region.

Three leading California stone fruit grower-packers will soon be growing and marketing new plum, peach, nectarine and apricot varieties developed by Sun World International LLC under a licensing agreement with the Bakersfield, CA-based fruit marketer. Sun World has issued stone fruit licenses to California-based Wawona Packing Co. Inc. in Cutler, Enns Packing Co-Wespak Sales in Dinuba and Sunwest Fruit Co. in Parlier.

The California Strawberry Commission in Watsonville, CA, has "a team of three category development managers" who “spend most of their time going out and calling on all of the major retail chains and presenting category business reviews,” Chris Christian, vice president of marketing for the commission, said in a Jan. 26 interview with The Produce News.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Feb. 4 that a total of $15 million is available to domestic asparagus producers to compensate them for marketing losses resulting from imports during the 2004 through 2007 crop years. Affected producers may apply for compensation beginning on Feb. 7.

Craig Wheeling, a 23-year veteran at Brooks Tropicals who was instrumental in transforming the company into an agribusiness that now spreads across the Americas, announced his retirement as president of the Homestead, FL- based firm.

"I'm going to miss the company and the people who work for it," Mr. Wheeling stated in a Feb. 4 press release. “Brooks’ employees are great people and dedicated to their work. It shows.”

Growers in the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Sonora were assessing damage to assorted crops on the morning of Friday, Feb. 4, following two nights of freezing temperatures, as their distributors in Nogales, AZ, awaited news of the extent of the damage.

"Everything is changing. I don't know what to tell you. I still won't know what to tell you 'til Monday, but we got hit severely hard," Jerry Havel, director of sales and marketing at Fresh Farms in Nogales, said early morning Friday, Feb. 4.