By pretty much any measure, mango movement has been impressive over the last few years. Volume continues to increase and the f.o.b. prices are remaining fairly strong.

According to Ronnie Cohen, vice president of sales and a partner in Vision Import Group LLC in River Edge, NJ, it’s time for some better packaging to continue the sales gains of this tropical fruit.

VINELAND, NJ — Jay Krichmar, president of Krichmar Produce Co., was evaluating the cool weather pattern that had marked the early spring in New Jersey and how it was affecting the crops so far this year when The Produce News visited him in mid-May.

“This year started slow, but the weather will come on and we’ll catch up like that,” he said with a snap of his fingers.

Even with the cool spring, Krichmar said May 15 that lettuce “was starting to come in” and would get more plentiful during the next few weeks. Herbs “were pretty plentiful,” he added.

FoodLink, the commerce and traceability platform for fresh food retailers, wholesalers and more than 2,000 growers, packers and shippers, introduced a new solution for warehouse inventory management to attendees at the recent United Fresh 2013 in San Diego.

Representatives of the Northwest pear industry met last week in Portland, OR, to project the size of the 2013 fresh pear harvest. With reports of an excellent-quality crop from the Pacific Northwest growing regions of Wenatchee and Yakima, WA, and Mid-Columbia and Medford, OR, the total projection is showing approximately 19.8 million standard 44-pound box equivalents (or 436,410 tons) of pears for the fresh market. This estimate is 4 percent larger than the five-year average and 2 percent larger than last year’s crop, which would make the forthcoming crop the third-largest on record.

It appears as if there are sufficient assets in the Pro's Ranch Markets Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection proceedings to pay PACA Trust claimants in full.

Attorneys representing Pro's Ranch Markets of Phoenix, AZ, and produce industry creditors have been discussing establishing a procedure for expedited payment of PACA Trust claims related to that case. In fact, a hearing date has been set for June 11 by the bankruptcy judge to hear a motion with regard to establishing the PACA claims procedure.

The Produce Marketing Association announced that Tony Parassio has been named chief operating officer of the Newark, DE-based organization.

The announcement was made at the association's recent board of directors meeting in Denver.