Stellar Distributing Inc. in Madera, CA, picked its first fresh California figs of the 2012 season in the Niland area in California’s southern desert May 11 and will have figs of one or more varieties available continuously throughout December and, weather permitting, into the first week of January, according to Sales Manager Kurt Cappelluti.

“We finished planting last fall an additional 40 acres of organic fruit in the desert,” said George Kragie, president of Western Fresh Marketing in Madera, CA, in an interview with The Produce News May 4.

Normally when figs are packed in an eight ounce or a one-pound clamshell, they are “packed on top of each other like strawberries,” according to Marc Marchini, sales and marketing manager for figs at J. Marchini Farms.

On the very day that the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market opened its doors — June 5, 2011 — Jimmy Storey, owner of Quaker City Produce, returned to work following a serious illness that kept him hospitalized for about six months.

Chip Wiechec, president of Hunter Bros., showed his PWPM warehouse to Julie Wong, a Philadelphia-Chinatown entrepreneur who toured the market on January 20.“We’r

Chuck Zambito, owner of Zambito Produce Sales in West Deptford, NJ, said the produce industry is always evolving and changing, “just like the ocean,” making reference to the already apparent changes taking place at the less than one-year-old Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market.