Buoyed by an increase in assessment, the National Mango Board is ramping up its promotional programs in an effort to continue growing the mango category.

"With the increased assessment that we began collecting last fall, we have a very nice program in place for 2013," said Bill Vogel, president of Vision Produce Co. in Los Angeles, who is the 2013 chairman of the National Mango Board. "We've also been able to increase our research component by tying in with the Center for Produce Safety, which is doing a project for us this year."

The California crop is bigger this year and the crop for Eco Farms Avocados Inc. in Temecula, CA, is larger as well, said Steve Taft, president of Eco Farms, in an interview with The Produce News Feb. 21.

“It is really slow to get started, though,” he said. “Here it is almost the end of February, and we haven’t done 10 million pounds of fruit total [as an industry] out of 500 million” pounds estimated for the season. “So we are kind of backing ourselves into a bit of a corner with that, unfortunately.”

Index Fresh Inc., which packs avocados in the “AvoTerra” brand, among others, will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2014.

Although the company handles avocados from several growing regions, “we are a corporation owned by California growers,” said President Dana Thomas in an interview with The Produce News Feb. 20. “We have 100 years of representing California growers, so the California crop is incredibly important to us.”

The company will be “talking a lot” about its plans to celebrate its 100-year history “as we get ready to roll that out,” he said.

OFA, The Association of Horticulture Professionals, and the American Nursery & Landscape Association launched their first joint event, Next Level, Jan. 31-Feb. 2 in Nashville, TN. The conference represents one of first steps toward the proposed consolidation between the two groups.

Next Level is an educational conference designed to help participants develop their business acumen and personal leadership skills. A volunteer advisory group of members from both groups worked with staff to develop the conference.

Organizers of two Russian horticulture trade shows announced an agreement Jan. 15 in Moscow to hold their two fairs on the same dates in the same building to cover the complete span of Russian floriculture, gardening and landscaping in one event.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL — Fair Flowers Fair Plants is coming to the United States on a trial basis in the coming year in cooperation with MPS certification company, according to Arthij van der Veer, MPS international coordinator.