Continental Fresh LLC imports mangos throughout the year, but its real time to shine is in the period from late summer into November when Brazilian mangos take center stage.

The Coconut Grove, FL-based company is one of the larger importers of mangos from Brazil, as it has been importing from that South American country for almost two decades.

“We’ve been working in Brazil for 18 years,” said Albert Perez, the company’s managing partner. “We’ve established a very good relationship with a couple of shippers.”

Thirty-seven years ago when David Warren launched his company, Central American Produce Inc., the name was a great descriptor of the point of origin of the products it sourced.

His son, Michael Warren, who is the current president of the Pompano Beach, FL, operation, said “my father began by bringing in melons from Guatemala and pineapples as well. He pioneered the sno pea business in Guatemala.”

In response to the increase in assessment funding from half a cent to three-quarters of a cent per pound for whole fresh mangos sold in the United States, the National Mango Board’s consumer, retail and foodservice promotions, as well as nutrition, health and food-safety research programs will be expanded beginning in Quarter 4.The NMB approved these new projects during its board meeting held Sept. 11-13 in Washington, DC.

Consumer PR & Marketing

Oliver Wolf, executive chef with J.W. Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in Desert Springs, CA, will be representing the Californa Date Administrative Committee and its grower members at the Produce Marketing Association’s Fresh Summit in Anaheim, CA, in October and “is going to be making some wonderful creations with dates in them,” according to Manager Lorrie Cooper.

“Since this is pretty much our home territory, we thought we would take our professional chef with us,” she said.

Good supplies of most types of nuts should be available for fall and winter from the 2012 harvest, with record production seen in some items. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has projected possible record production for peanuts in Georgia, with planted acreage up close to 60 percent over last year. The USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, Sept. 12, forecast a total harvest of 2.8 million pounds of peanuts in Georgia for 2012, up from 1.6 million pounds last year.

In August of 2011, A. Sullivan-Greiner, a resident of San Diego, CA, asked The Union of Concerned Scientists, a leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world, why, given all we know about the importance of fruits and vegetables in the diet, and the government’s emphasis on the “Five a Day” campaign, are most fruits and vegetables still classified as “specialty crops?”