The nation's largest retailer has announced that its suppliers of produce, other perishables and private-label products must be certified against the international Global Food Safety Initiative standards by July 2009.

In a press release, Wal-Mart declared that it would require suppliers to complete "initial certification between July and December of 2008, with full certification required by July 2009." The press release added that "audits will be completed by approved third-party auditing companies."

Since its inception five years ago, Monterey, CA-based U.S. Fruit & Veg has been marketing broccoli. At first the company procured broccoli, but then turned to growing its own. The company's "Eat Me" logo with a broccoli head forming the letter "T" in the word "Eat" appears on T-shirts and baseball caps and has been popular, said Ash Shoukry, president of U.S. Fruit & Veg.

Now the logo's visibility is ratcheting up with its appearance on the gym trunks of fighters in Ultimate Fighting Championships and World Extreme Cage Fighting.

The California Centers for International Trade Development, in cooperation with the California Department of Food & Agriculture, is hosting a California Agricultural Export Training Certificate Program for farmers, ranchers and food processors.

Most retailers who had hopes for California strawberry promotions for Valentine's Day were probably disappointed as late plantings and late January rains made supplies tight and prices high coming into the Valentine's Day pull.

But as of Sunday, Feb. 3, the Accuweather 15-day forecast showed no further rain for the next two weeks, and growers were optimistic that fields would quickly dry out and plants would start putting out lots of beautiful fruit by mid-February or shortly thereafter.

The tomato category has exploded over the past decade with no item having a better story to tell than the so-called heirloom tomato.

Though its name conjures up the past, one would have been hard-pressed to even find an SKU for the item at the turn of this century. It has only been in the past few years that the heirloom tomato has become a big seller, and it still is much more popular in upscale, specialty or natural food markets than in conventional supermarkets.

FRESNO, CA -- John Hein, director of marketing for Crown Jewels Marketing & Distribution, here, and a partner in the company, has left Crown Jewels and joined Trinity Fruit Sales Co., also in Fresno.

Mr. Hein told The Produce News Feb. 4 that he now is connected with Trinity Fruit, where he is working in sales.

Mr. Hein had joined Crown Jewels Marketing just over a year earlier, in January 2007, after 17 years as marketing director at Kingsburg Orchards in Kingsburg, CA, a major grower and shipper of stone fruit, Asian pears and an assortment of other fruit.