"Freeport has been closed due to a U.S. Coast Guard order, so we are diverting scheduled shipments there to Port Everglades, Florida," Mike Mitchell, spokesman for Chiquita Brands International in Cincinnati, said on the afternoon of Sept. 21. Mr. Mitchell referred to the port of Freeport, TX, which became an alternative banana receiving port for Chiquita after Hurricane Katrina destroyed Chiquita  and Dole's  port facilities in Gulfport, MS, on Aug. 29. At The Produce News press time, Hurricane Rita was forecast to hit the Texas Gulf Coast around 2 a.m. Sept. 24. Rita, a category five

Moss Landing, CA-based Capurro Marketing LLC has hired Kevin Murphy to the newly created position of president of the company, effective Sept. 6. Mr. Murphy was formerly the executive vice president of strategic development for Salinas, CA-based Fresh Express. During his more than 15-year tenure at Fresh Express, Mr. Murphy took on many roles that included responsibility for helping the company develop future strategies in addition to being in charge of operations and marketing for the firm. Mr. Murphy played an integral part in the management team that helped grow Fresh Express from a several

The successful teaming of a New Jersey eggplant processor with a New Jersey eggplant farmer took an unexpected route through Chicago. Last May at the annual FMI show in Chicago, New Jersey businessman Tom Hoversen approached Al Murray, director of the division of markets for the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, with one simple question: Where could he locate a New Jersey farmer growing eggplant to supply his COMARCO Products Inc. of Camden with some of the 6.5 million pounds of eggplant it processes in a year? "I thought, 'You've got to be kidding, " said Mr. Murray, who headed a

PHILADELPHIA  Joe Procacci hosted about 40 industry leaders at his Procacci Bros. Sales Corp./Garden State Farms facility, here, Sept. 12 to meet Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell in a fund-raising activity for the governor. The industry guests dined in Procacci Bros.' in-house cafeteria, then gathered in the companys spacious foyer to meet with the governor, who was about 80 minutes late and missed lunch. Before taking office Jan. 31, 2003, Mr. Rendell had served as the mayor of Philadelphia, which added to his familiarity with Mr. Procacci and other Philadelphia produce industry leaders. He

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. "I had planned on the Peace Corps right out of college," said Mr. Romsa, a 2000 graduate of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles with a bachelor's degree in business

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 harvest, which was already underway for some early varieties and would begin in earnest in October for the major Deglet Noor variety, will continue until sometime in December or early January. "Right now they