When Matt Romsa began working April 1 for Gourmet Trading Co., a fresh produce importer and distributor in Los Angeles, it was a big change from the life he had been leading just a year earlier.

Mr. Romsa, 27, served for two years as a volunteer health educator for the Peace Corps in the landlocked African nation of Malawi, which ranks among the world's least developed countries, according to the U.S. government.

The 2005-06 date harvest in California's Coachella Valley is expected to be in the range of 22 million to 24 million pounds, according to Lorrie Cooper, manager of the California Date Administrative Committee, which represents about 80 percent of the dates grown.

That is about the same volume as the last two years but only about half of the record 52 million-pound harvest in 1992-93.

The U.S. International Trade Commission in Vienna, VA, voted to maintain the current antidumping order on imports of Chinese non-frozen apple juice concentrate to avoid further injury to the domestic apple industry.

In a unanimous vote, the ITC commissioners voted to prevent a return of the predatory pricing practices of the 1990s, which harmed the domestic concentrate industry. The decision is the last step in the process to extend the current antidumping order for five years. The U.S. Apple Association submitted substantive comments in support of the extension.

As rescue efforts in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama continued, and thousands of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina's enormous devastation were being relocated, a semi load of Idaho potatoes was on its way to help feed those sheltered at the Houston Astrodome.

According to Corey Griswold of 20/20 Produce Sales Inc. in Paul, ID, the load of 84,000 potatoes was donated by Idaho shippers Arrowhead Potato and Mart Produce, both located in Rupert, Magic Valley Produce in Paul and Sun River of Idaho in Aberdeen.

OAKLAND, CA  An impromptu outpouring of generosity resulted in nearly $10,000 being raised for hurricane victims at the Northern California luncheon meeting of the Fresh Produce & Floral Council held Sept. 13, here, at the Oakland Airport Hilton.

FPFC Chair-elect Jack Gyben of Progressive Marketing Group in Los Angeles told The Produce News that Dick Spezzano of Spezzano Consulting and a member of the FPFC executive committee got the ball rolling with a challenge donation.

Frontera Produce, based in Edinburg, TX, announced the launch of a new melon import program into the port of Corpus Christi, to begin operations in November.

Frontera will be importing cantaloupe and honeydew from Guatemala and other Latin American sources, contracting 2,400 tons per week for the duration of the season running November to May. The product will be shipped to retailers and wholesalers throughout the United States.