Rain, hail, frost, cloud cover and below-normal temperatures have all had an impact on California stone fruit this spring. But as growers evaluated their orchards in mid-April, they were much more optimistic about what they were seeing than the general mood in the industry seemed to be a week earlier.

Mann Packing Co. in Salinas, CA, has announced the promotion of Mark Plantan to the position of vice president of retail sales. Mr. Plantan was previously Mann's director of value added/retail sales for the eastern United States. He replaces Craig Enos, who left the company April 7.

VANCOUVER, BC -- Displaying a plethora of the fresh fruits and vegetables available from Mexican growers and exporters, the MexBest pavilion at the Canadian Produce Marketing Association's convention, here, was the largest in the show's 81-year history.

"They have progressively gotten bigger and bigger," said Ron Lemaire, executive vice president of the association. "They moved to the larger pavilion format three years ago with great success."

Growers, packers, processors and shippers of fresh and fresh-cut produce should be hearing the distant sound of drumming from the mighty jungle that is our nation's capital.

Stakeholders on the federal, state and local levels are anticipating major economic changes to the port of Quincy, WA, in 2006 with the possibility the port will be selected as a demonstration site for a new refrigerated railcar hub. In addition, technology giants Microsoft and Yahoo have each expressed interest in locating "server farms," or massive Internet server storage facilities, in Quincy.

Bob Nielsen, senior vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel of Salinas, CA-based Tanimura & Antle, left the company April 15 after 14 years.

He has taken a position as executive vice president, general counsel and secretary with Monterey, CA-based Century Aluminum, a publicly owned, major aluminum producer.