Santa Maria, CA-based Bonipak Produce Co. has hired Joe Leonard as chief executive officer.

Mr. Leonard officially began in his new position March 1, though he has been a consultant to Bonipak since near the end of 2007, according to Mitch Ardantz, Bonipak's vice president of sales and marketing.

On the one hand, proponents of reusable plastic containers for the produce industry have to be happy with the close to 50 percent growth over the past several years. On the other hand, RPCs still only account for 7-8 percent of the market, which is difficult to fathom if you believe the advantages touted by those same proponents.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Food & Drug Administration issued an import alert March 22 regarding entry of cantaloupe from Agropecuaria Montelibano, a Honduran grower and packer, because, based on current information, fruit from this company appears to be associated with a Salmonella Litchfield outbreak in the United States and Canada.

The import alert advises FDA field offices that all cantaloupes shipped to the United States by this company are to be detained.

VIDALIA, GA -- The Vidalia Onion Committee will be promoting Georgia's famous sweet onions this year on several fronts.

A massive fire the afternoon of March 13 completely gutted the 40,000- square-foot facility of Golden Valley Specialty Mushrooms Ltd., one of North America's larger growers of organic specialty mushrooms in Pitt Meadows, BC, about 25 miles east of Vancouver.

Members of the Georgia Senate honored Delbert Bland, president and chief executive officer of Bland Farms LLC in Glennville, GA, Feb. 5 for his significant contributions to the state's economic health and wellbeing.

Bland Farms began growing Vidalia onions on five acres in 1982. From those humble roots, growing operations burgeoned over the years beyond the borders of the Peach State and into Utah, Pennsylvania, Colorado, California, Texas and Peru.