“What is new for our company is we have really expanded our cucumber program this year by probably threefold,” said Jerry Havel, director of sales and marketing for Fresh Farms in Nogales, AZ. With a significant increase in acreage, the company now has “a very large cucumber program that includes outside pole-grown cucumbers” from the state of Sonora, Mexico, “and also shadehouse cucumbers from Sonora.”

Washington — A nine-month extension of the 2008 farm bill is in the massive tax legislation passed by the House Jan. 1 to stave off the so-called fiscal cliff. This extends the deadline by which Congress has to write a five-year bill.

The House voted 257 to 167 to extend the Bush-era tax breaks and raise tax brackets on households making more than $450,000 a year, among other changes. The vote came after the Senate overwhelmingly approved the measure during a late-night session.

Sunsweet Growers Inc., a leading marketer of prunes, specialty dried fruit products and fruit juices, promoted Jeff McLemore to the role of vice president of North America marketing.

The Giumarra Cos. promoted Tom Richardson and Bruce Dowhan to its executive staff. Mr. Richardson will serve as vice president of global development, and Mr. Dowhan will serve as vice president and general manager of Giumarra Agricom and Giumarra Borquez.

“We’ve got quite a few things going on,” said Matt Mandel, vice president of sales and marketing at SunFed in Nogales, AZ, in an interview with The Produce News.

“First and foremost, we have a very much expanded program on organics,” he said.

Also, “a nice item that we are going to be adding to our portfolio is elongated red peppers.”

In addition to SunFed’s fruit and vegetable programs out of Mexico, “we are expanding our production in the Dominican Republic as well,” Mr. Mandel said.

Craig Uchizono, vice president, Southern Hemisphere for The Giumarra Cos., based in Los Angeles, said that the company offers a variety of produce from Chile, including avocados, blueberries, grapes, stone fruit, cherries, apples, pears, kiwifruit and citrus.