Unifrutti S.A. in Santiago, Chile, has been appointed as a licensed marketer of new seedless grapes developed by Sun World International Inc. in Bakersfield, CA.

The Chilean firm?s nomination enables it to export fruit from the new varieties produced by licensed Sun World producers throughout Chile, according to Sun World Senior Vice President David Marguleas.

Irwindale, CA-based Ready Pac Produce announced Feb. 8 that it will shut down production in its Spreckels, CA, facility " the smaller of the Salinas facilities that it acquired in its recent merger with Salad Time.

While The Produce News and the Idaho Potato Commission, which co-sponsored a "Return to Healthy Eating? display contest that ran from October through December 2004, can?t take all the credit, the joint effort was undoubtedly one contributing factor in bringing many Americans back to their senses with regard to some of the scientifically flawed premises of low-carbohydrate fad diets.

Movement of the popular "Pink Lady? brand apple continues at a brisk pace, according to Pink Lady America Marketing Director Alan Taylor, with shipments early in 2005 up more than 600 percent over the 2002-03 year that saw a devastating crop freeze.

Demand was high during the week of Christmas 2004, and by Jan. 3, a to-date total saw 288 cars compared to 172 cars of Pink Lady apples shipped from the Yakima and Wenatchee districts of Washington state.

If prognostications from growers on California?s Central Coast are correct, there won?t be a vegetable supply gap a few months from now despite concerns that heavy rains delayed some plantings.

In speaking with The Produce News on Feb. 8, Tom Nunes Jr., vice president of sales for Salinas, CA-based The Nunes Co. Inc., said that, for example, crops planted three weeks apart could harvest two days apart.

Frank Devine is all about high-tech and biotech.

Though he won?t be found in an office cubicle, denizens of Silicon Valley's corporate culture may have him to thank the next time they bite into a piece of fresh produce at work on their lunch hour.