Allan Napolitano started working for Vision Import Group LLC in River Edge, NJ, in December as a sales associate. The 26-year-old attended Don Bosco Preparatory High School in Ramsey, NJ, and after graduating went to Manhattan College in the Bronx, NY, where he graduated in 2007 with a degree in business management and a minor in marketing.

“Attending Don Bosco is a family tradition,” said Mr. Napolitano. “My father, Allan S., attended, as did my three brothers. The youngest is now finishing his freshman year.”

Double D Farms, a Central California grower-packer-shipper specializing in organic onions and other organic produce, has added conventional onions to its product line for the 2012 season.

Double D, which is owned by Donald Divine and David Wood, is headquartered in Fresno, CA, with farming operations, packing and shipping facilities and sales offices located in Coalinga, some 50 miles to the southwest. The company has been a CCOF-certified organic grower and shipper since 1997.

The California Cantaloupe Advisory Board in Dinuba, CA, a state marketing order, recently expanded its geographic scope to give the marketing order jurisdiction over melons grown not only in the San Joaquin Valley (and elsewhere in the state north of the San Gorgonio Pass) but those grown in the southern desert regions of California as well, notably the Imperial Valley.

FRESNO, CA — Karen Brux, vice president of marketing communications for the California Table Grape Commission, said the difference between this year and previous years in the commission’s consumer and trade marketing program is a stronger focus on health and usage.

It might seem counter-intuitive, but a couple of transportation experts say the best bet during a tight transportation situation is to not try to get the lowest price possible.

Sure, it might be possible to guess right and secure some loads at a very low price by timing the market, but in the long run that could cost a firm more in poor service and not being able to secure that same truck next time around.

San Joaquin Tomato Growers Inc. in Crows Landing, CA, has hired industry veteran Joseph de la Ossa on its sales desk to help fill the void left by the untimely death of Mark Perez earlier this spring.