Chilean apples underway, and like kiwi, the season looks good
As the Chilean kiwifruit season moves into gear in April, Chilean apples are already in stride and movement is good.
Tom Tjerandsen, managing director of the Chilean Fresh Fruit Association, based in Sonoma, CA, said that more than a third of Chile's fresh-apple exports to the United States are the Gala variety. About 16 percent, or 6.5 million boxes, each, are Granny Smith and Red Delicious. Braeburn, Red Chief and Fuji rank next with about 5 percent each of the total export volume.
Produce Alliance adds company
Merchants Foodservice has become the newest member of Produce Alliance.
Produce Alliance, headquartered in Nashville, TN, is a management services group specializing in the procurement and distribution of fresh produce to the foodservice industry. With the addition of Merchants Foodservice, Produce Alliance now has 34 members with 37 distribution centers.
New Philadelphia market location jeopardized by bald eagles and maritime alliance
PHILADELPHIA -- An agreement reached last year that would relocate the Philadelphia Regional Produce Market a few miles south of its current location to the old Philadelphia Naval Yard is now under fire with the discovery of a bald eagle nest on the site and protests about whether construction of the market would limit the future of the city as a seaport.
The long path toward a new Philadelphia produce market took twists on March 22 that no one could have imagined.
National Ag Science Center planned
SALINAS, CA -- A first-of-its kind National Ag Science Center is planned to be built on the Modesto Junior College campus in Modesto, CA. The projected opening is 2009, according to Michele Laverty, director of the science center.
Final report on spinach offers few new revelations
The final report on spinach by the joint efforts of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and the California Department of Health Services offered much detail of investigative efforts but few revelations that have not already become public in recent weeks and months.
The report points to Paicines Ranch in San Benito County as the likely source for the E. coli outbreak. It's the first time that authorities acknowledged that they had isolated the deadly E. coli strain on Paicines Ranch, near a field the ranch leased to Mission Organics.
Fresh Express joins California leafy greens agreement
Citing progress made to the metrics of the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement as well as trade association involvement, Salinas, CA-based Fresh Express decided March 31 to sign on to the agreement.
Implementation of the agreement began Sunday, April 1. Fresh Express' previous reluctance to sign on had set the company apart as the lone holdout among companies with significant volume and impact on the California leafy greens industry.
Time is running out
WASHINGTON -- Labor shortages continue to hamper harvest operations across the country, but advocates warn that Congress may be unlikely to touch immigration reform for years to come if it doesn't act this summer.
"We have until the end of August to get a bill," said New York Apple Association President Jim Allen. After that, Congress will start the presidential election season, and the prospects for relief from the increasing labor problems and tightening border security dim, he said.
Produce for Better Health Foundation and Imagination Farms forge strategic alliance
INDIANAPOLIS -- Imagination Farms and the Produce for Better Health Foundation have forged a strategic alliance based on shared a vision of increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables.
Watermelon heats up competition for juice buyers
SAN FRANCISCO -- Watermelon just got hotter. Sundia Corp., the only mass- producer of watermelon juice, announced that its line of 100 percent juices has been reformulated to better capture the essence of summer's more popular and more nutritious fruit.
Beginning the second week in April, the new and improved juices will begin making their way onto refrigerated shelves in the produce sections of grocery stores nationwide.
Church Bros. and True Leaf acquire Pride of San Juan plant
Salinas, CA-based grower-shipper Church Bros. LLC and its processing entity True Leaf Farms have acquired Pride of San Juan's processing facility in San Juan Bautista, CA.