With Valentine's Day just around the corner, the timing was perfect for Well- Pict and Lifetime television network to showcase the attributes of Well-Pict premium strawberries.

The $5,000 question facing independent owner-operators of refrigerated trucks is whether or not the expenditure of that amount of money is worth it to continue to haul loads from California.

On Jan. 1, new California regulations went into effect that require all refrigerated trailers to be equipped with a filter unit that reduces the emissions of particulate matter from their refrigeration units.

Despite strawberries commanding high prices at retail, consumers aren't exactly heading for the exits.

Andy Gustavson, produce manager for Ben Lomond Market in Ben Lomond, CA, and produce supervisor for sister store Scotts Valley Market, told The Produce News Jan. 28 that strawberries have been "astronomical" in price. Rainy weather in Southern California and a freeze in Florida had tightened strawberry supplies.

More rain was forecast for Southern California Jan. 29 and for later in the week of Feb. 1.

Reduced strawberry acreage statewide — most notably in Southern California other than the Oxnard district — combined with inclement weather in January, has foreshadowed what projected to be a disappointing Valentine's Day pull for grower-shippers in the Southern California strawberry deal.

But hope springs eternal, and springtime strawberry volumes for Easter and beyond may make up for an apparent Valentine’s Day massacre.

Paganini Foods LLC, based in Swedesboro, NJ, filed a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition Feb. 1 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of New Jersey, under case No. 10-13006.

The attorney for the debtor is Harry J. Giacometti of Smith Giacometti LLC, in Haddonfield, NJ.