ORANGE COVE, CA -- Booth Ranches LLC, a family-owned, fully integrated citrus grower, packer and shipper, signed an agreement the week of Sept. 7 to purchase an existing packing facility presently owned by Sunny Cove Citrus LLC.

This acquisition will more than double Booth's volume packing capacity, according to Neil Galone, vice president of marketing and sales at Booth. "Our volume continues to grow as a result of a long-term strategy, and this new packinghouse will give us the increased capacity to get us to the next level," he said in a Sept. 16 press release.

WASHINGTON -- A salad bar in every school was just one of a handful of pressing legislative priorities that brought more than 400 produce leaders to attend the United Fresh Produce Association's Washington Public Policy Conference, held here Sept. 9-11.

More than half of the produce industry representatives gathered met with congressional staff during the annual conference, carrying a message to boost nutrition programs, pass a produce-friendly food safety bill, reform immigration policies and block the Employee Free Choice Act.

WASHINGTON -- A salad bar in every school was just one of a handful of pressing legislative priorities that brought more than 400 produce leaders to attend the United Fresh Produce Association's Washington Public Policy Conference, held here Sept. 9-11.

More than half of the produce industry representatives gathered met with congressional staff during the annual conference, carrying a message to boost nutrition programs, pass a produce-friendly food safety bill, reform immigration policies and block the Employee Free Choice Act.

NAPLES, FL -- Even the worst season in a decade was not enough to keep tomato grower-shippers and attendees of the 34th annual Florida Joint Tomato Conference from focusing on the future.

"Dreadful," committee Chairman Bob Spencer said in summarizing the 2008- 09 season in the Florida Tomato Committee's annual report, which was released at the conference, held Sept. 8-14 at the Ritz-Carlton-Naples, here. It is doubtful the industry could survive another season like this one.

Minneapolis-based C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc., a leading produce- sourcing and non-asset based third-party logistics company, announced Sept. 15 that it has acquired Rosemont Farms Corp. Inc., a prominent produce-marketing company, and Quality Logistics LLC, a non-asset based logistics sister company that focuses on produce transportation. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Going "green" is great unless it's on your potatoes.

NNZ Inc. and Walnut Packaging Inc. have teamed up to manufacture, market and distribute the Spud Shade anti-greening poly potato bag.

The "Spud Shade" bag is a patented design that uses a co-extrusion film process that laminates regular poly to a special opaque poly that inhibits UV light from penetrating the front of the bag. This also allows a large area on the front of the bag for printing graphics for marketing purposes.