RIO RICO, AZ — Cost cutting can be a key component in increasing mango consumption, observes Edgar Duarte, a partner in Higueral Produce, Inc., located here.

“The growers always want higher prices. And the consumer has to have a lower cost,” he noted. Leave it to the man in the middle to be creative in his thinking.

Packaging is part of the cost equation. Duarte suggests that some segments of the industry may want to reconsider mango packaging.

Last year Don Ed Holmes of The Onion House in Weslcaco, TX, was coming off the warmest winter he could remember in state history. This year he is coming off one of the coolest winters he can recall, aside from the freeze years of 1983 and 1989.

“Cold” of course is a relative term. While the rest of the nation shivered through weeks of frigid and sometimes devastating weather, temperatures in Texas were mild by comparison, but still an average 10-12 degrees below normal.

With 4Earth Farms' rebranding effort now well under way, the company (formerly MCL Fresh Inc.) continues to generate excitement with new acreage and increased yields in both conventional and organic Brussels sprouts.

Frieda's, a leading marketer of specialty produce, based in Los Alamitos, CA, is now offering two specialty artichoke varieties, the Sangria and the Fiore Viola.

The Hass Avocado Board, the Irvine, CA-based organization that promotes the consumption of Hass avocados in the United States, is scheduling its annual board elections for vacant domestic Hass avocado grower and Hass avocado importer members as well as alternate seats.

Sun World International LLC has appointed three new grape marketer licensees — Giuliano Puglia Fruit of Puglia, Italy; Exportadora Santa Elena S.A. of Colina, Chile; and GESEX S.A. of Buin, Chile — to distribute the California company’s licensed grapes.

The appointments bring Sun World’s total marketer network to 32 grape companies and 22 stone fruit companies in 12 countries.