“We use the opportunity of attending the New England Produce Council Produce and Floral Expo to kick off our Jersey Fresh season,” Al Murray, assistant secretary of agriculture and continuing director, Division of Markets, for the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, told The Produce News. “The expo is perfectly timed to the beginning of our growing season, and we take advantage of the event to remind the industry that New Jersey produce is now available.”

Charles H. (Chuck) Hodges, a founder of Prime Time International in Coachella, CA, and a managing member of the company, died April 19 in his home in Palm Springs, CA, after a 16-month struggle with cancer. He was 71.

Mr. Hodges served as vice president of sales at Sun World International prior to co-founding the company now known as Prime Time in 1992.

During the 2011 California cherry season, early varieties from the central and southern San Joaquin Valley exceeded the later Bing crop from the northern districts in volume for the first time. That phenomenon will not be repeated this year.

Plantings of early-variety cherries continue to increase, and last year a record volume was harvested. At the same time, the northern Bing crop was sharply reduced by rain at harvest time.

The early part of the California cherry season, from the southern San Joaquin Valley, is expected to be light, but Cary Crum, vice president of Visalia, CA-based Green Tree International, which brokers the deal, said April 9 that he expects promotional opportunities for California cherries from the time the harvest starts in the Tulare-to-Fresno areas in middle part of the valley around mid-May.

Scott Mabs, director of marketing for Homegrown Organic Farms in Porterville, CA, said this year’s California blueberry crop is a good one. “It’s raining right now which is good for the plants,” he told The Produce News April 11. “Everything is very good right now. The berries look nice and plump.”

FRESNO, CA — A series of storms in California’s San Joaquin Valley the week of April 9 caused considerable hail damage to some stone fruit crops in the valley and limited damage to some cherry orchards. But “as far as our orchards go, we dodged the bullet, so that was good,” said Mike Jameson, proprietor of TriStone International, here, exclusive marketer for Morada Produce Co. LP in Stockton, CA.