Washington’s apple producers are ready to move apples into a lean, clean pipeline as the 2011-12 season ramps up. “As of this morning, we have [fewer] than three million boxes [of old-crop apples] left,” Charles Pomianek, director of the Wenatchee Valley Traffic Association, told The Produce News Aug. 29. “We’re out of fruit in the state of Washington right now.”

Dan R. Costa Inc., which is located near Manteca, CA, specializes in pumpkins, mini-pumpkins, gourds and other ornamental produce items for fall décor. Complementing that product line, the company also is now offering a fresh-cut sweet corn product and a line of fresh-cut hard-shell or winter squash in some innovative consumer pack styles.

Colorado health authorities on Sept. 9 warned people at-risk of listeriosis to avoid eating cantaloupe as preliminary test results link cantaloupe as the likely cause of a Listeria outbreak.

Federal and state health officials are investigating a Listeria outbreak that involves nine confirmed cases in Colorado -- one of which that has proved fatal -- and two yet-to-be-confirmed cases in Texas and Nebraska, said the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

It was a very difficult time for the produce industry when the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, caused a disruption in the marketplace.