The United Fresh Produce Association will honor Frieda Rapoport Caplan with its Lifetime Achievement Award during its 2013 Winter Leadership meetings this January in Tucson, AZ. The award recognizes individuals for a lifetime of achievement and for lasting contributions to the fresh produce industry.

Peruvian exporters will have a unique chance to learn about produce industry traceability requirements and other food-safety issues in a special seminar held Jan. 22 in Lima, Peru.

The seminar is being organized by a coalition of produce and export organizations with the objective of ensuring all Peruvian exporters are informed about the upcoming PTI implementation dates and pending new food safety requirements.

Using the fairly fail-safe produce industry conventional logic that a bad year is followed by a good one and visa versa, participants in this year’s western winter vegetable deal are expecting a pretty good year with good movement and good demand.

Echoing the comments of many was Russell Widerburg, sales manager for Boskovich Farms, which is headquartered in Oxnard, CA. “We are expecting a great winter deal,” he said. “As modest as last season was, this has to be better.”

Flavor 1st Growers & Packers Inc., based in Hendersonville, NC, hired DAN JONES as general manager.

In his new position, Mr. Jones is in charge of the company’s packing and storage facility, as well as overseeing 300 employees.

Before joining Flavor 1st Growers, Mr. Jones worked in the citrus industry in Florida for 30 years. His prior experience includes being an operations manager and export sales manager for DNE World Fruit Sales and Seald-Sweet International.

Michael Muzyk, president of Baldor Specialty Foods in the Bronx, NY, told The Produce News that the company has had extremely good experiences at the New York Produce Show & Conference since its inception two years ago.

Winter Garden Produce Inc. of Uvalde, TX, is heading into the heart of its cabbage and broccoli deal in excellent shape and plans to increase its focus on onions this season as well.

Though water worries led to a slight reduction in cabbage and broccoli production, “That’s not a bad thing,” said J Allen Carnes, whose grandfather D.C. Carnes started the family business in 1949 just outside of Uvalde in the southwest central part of the state known as the Winter Garden — the area that gave the family business its name.