With comprehensive immigration reform gaining momentum in Washington, DC, floral industry professionals will be making visits to Capitol Hill March 12 in an attempt to make sure members of Congress clearly understand how immigration policy affects flower growers and floral wholesalers and retailers.

The Society of American Florists was scheduled to meet March 11 in Alexandria, VA, for its annual Congressional Action Days, which includes speakers and briefings March 11 and visits to Congressional offices March 12.

John Nevado, president of Nevado Roses in Ecuador, won the 2012 Innovation Pioneers One Wish Award for “exceptional ideas and outstanding actions” in transforming the rose-farming industry, according to a news release. The award was presented recently at the 2012 Innovation in Action symposium held late last year in Stockholm, Sweden.

JMB Distributing Inc. in Nogales, AZ, which specializes in green beans, was receiving no product at all, at a time volume would normally have been strong and steady, when The Produce News talked to Harry Sbragia, the company’s president, Feb. 4.

“We had some sizeable freeze damage” from the mid-January cold snap that resulted in a loss of “a sizeable acreage,” he said. It happened to be a field that was just about to come into production.

GlobalGAP has been named to create technical benchmarking assessments for sustainability for the new Floriculture Sustainability Initiative. The announcement last month noted that GlobalGAP has been a reference and benchmarking standard for good agricultural practices in the floral and plant sector for more than 10 years.

The FSI group, based in Holland, was formed last summer to create “an international, sector-supported vision on sustainability by aligning global and local interests in the sector in a precompetitive way,” according to a news release from the group.

A new airport in Ecuador located a 23-mile drive east of Quito, opened for business Feb. 20 with one of the longest runways in South America, facilities to handle up to 6 million passengers annually, and plans for improved cargo facilities for shipments of cut flowers. The new airport, called Mariscal Sucre International Airport, the same name held by the old airport in Quito proper, will be served by 21 cargo airlines, 12 of them serving Miami.

Franklin D. Roosevelt used to say that dealing with the U.S. State Department was like watching an elephant get pregnant: “Everything takes place at a very high level, there’s a great commotion, and then nothing happens for 22 months.”