The U.S. Department of Agriculture will close two of its five PACA branch offices in February as a cost-cutting measure, according to Bruce Summers, chief of the PACA.

According to Mr. Summers, who was installed as chief of the PACA about four months ago, closing the Northeast regional office in New Brunswick, NJ, and the Midwest regional office in Glen Ellyn, IL, will result in a savings of over $1 million annually.

According to the Produce for Better Health Foundation, the key for retailers to sell more fruits and vegetables is to pitch them as snacks because consumers are already eating lots of fruit at breakfast while losing interest in cooking vegetable side dishes at dinnertime.

This was just one of the messages from PBH's 2005 State of the Plate Research on-line seminar designed to help retailers boost fresh produce sales.

AgraCo Technologies, based in Lafayette Hill, PA, has been awarded a 2005 ThinkGlobal/Commercial News USA Exporter of the Year award from ThinkGlobal Inc., publisher of Commercial News USA.

Commercial News USA, the official export promotion magazine of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is a catalog-style magazine distributed to approximately 400,000 readers in 145 countries worldwide. Awards are given to one U.S. company in each of 14 industry categories. AgraCo Technologies, a privately held company, was named Exporter of the Year in the agriculture category.

In an initiative that dates back to 2003, Watsonville, CA-based Driscoll Strawberry Associates expects to have all its growers meet EurepGap certification by the end of 2005, regardless of the region in which they operate.

PHILADELPHIA -- "The produce building will begin about here."

It was an extraordinary bus tour. The "street beneath the wheels of the big bus was the now-unused runway of Philadelphia's abandoned navy yard. The brambles to the right will be converted into the world's most modern fresh produce market before 2008.

Sonny DiCrecchio, executive director of the Philadelphia Regional Produce Market, was the tour guide. Aboard the bus were Philadelphia's produce merchants.

Continuing its restructuring and downsizing, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Inc., based in Montvale, NJ, ended its employment relationship with Ken Green, vice president of produce merchandising, as well as a number of other people at that level, on Monday, Sept. 26.