Winter weather was a concern but did no damage to the Duda Farm Fresh Foods Inc. crop in Visalia, CA, according to Sales Manager Paul Huckabay.

While the crop has produced more small- and medium-sized Navels, clementines and Minneola tangelos than usual, Mr. Huckabay said, “Since the first of the year there has been some minimal fruit growth, but we do not expect to see any significant change in the size profile over the next several weeks. On the other hand, lemons and Meyer lemons have provided more of an even distribution of sizes.”

“We continue to do well with our unpeeled bulk garlic cloves,” Bruce Klein, director of marketing for Maurice A. Auerbach, in Secaucus, NJ, told The Produce News. “Organic garlic is hearty, it doesn’t need refrigeration and it can be displayed in secondary locations in grocery stores.”

Mr. Klein added that jarred peeled organic garlic is also strong at retail today.

An early-January cold snap did very little damage to the Florida citrus crop of DNE World Fruit Sales and in fact should make for sweeter, stronger fruit in the second half, according to Kevin Swords, citrus sales manager for the Fort Pierce, FL-based company.

Christopher Ranch plans to continue to increase its organic production by 10 percent each year until it is able to meet the growing demand for California-grown organic garlic, according to Patsy Ross, vice president of marketing.

Christopher Ranch in Gilroy, CA, is a major grower, packer and shipper of organic garlic. It has been growing organically since 1997, and it handles organic products produced by other growing partners.

By the end of January, the produce industry's major trade associations have agreed to develop a framework by which new cantaloupe-specific food-safety guidance will be developed and disseminated in a very quick, though yet to be specified, time frame.

That was one of the more important outcomes from a private meeting of cantaloupe industry stakeholders that took place Jan. 11 in San Diego, CA, according to participant Stephen Patricio, a cantaloupe shipper who is also chairman of the Center for Produce Safety, which hosted the event.