The Nogales, AZ, produce deal is often thought of primarily as a winter deal out of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. But Sonora, the state immediately north of Sinaloa that borders Arizona, has a heavy production in various commodities during the fall season and was in full swing when The Produce News spoke with some of the distributors in Nogales in early November. Some products from Sinaloa had also begun to arrive. "We've been going for about five weeks" on some items, Bill Spence, sales manager at Sandia Distributing Inc., said Nov. 3. We started early with some watermelons out of Caborca

Immokalee, FL-based Six L's Packing Co. Inc. has greatly increased its volume by inking a deal with Meyer Tomato Co. to become that firms exclusive sales and marketing agent. The new relationship will give Six Ls close to 5 million more boxes of tomatoes and other winter vegetables to sell. In a Nov. 2 press release, Darren Micelle, chief marketing officer for Six Ls, said, "Our new sales partnership with Meyer Tomato allows us to broaden our supply base in Mexico and provide our customers with a dependable source of products from multiple growing regions." Meyer Tomato is a longtime tomato

Blue Book Services Inc. has entered into a collaboration agreement with Fresno, CA-based Lotpath, a firm that enables food suppliers to share information about their products and production practices with consumers, retailers, trading partners and regulatory agencies, making Lotpath a registered developer with Blue Book Services. Under terms of the program, Lotpath users can view select Blue Book listing information when searching for information on the Lotpath web site. In specific, visitors to the Lotpath web site can perform keyword searches, queries by location, and browse for suppliers

PHILADELPHIA -- The fact that U.S. Department of Justice served subpoenas on leaders of the South African and Australian citrus industries in Anaheim, CA, as the Produce Marketing Association convention was underway is an indication that these are days for the U.S. produce industry to be mindful of its trade activity. David Holzworth, general counsel in the United States representing Asociaci?n de Exportadores de Chile, the Chilean Fruit Exporters Association in Santiago, Chile, spoke at a Chilean preseason fruit import meeting Oct. 30, here, and indicated that the subpoenas were distributed

WASHINGTON -- A new survey found that some state health investigators miss asking questions about fruit and vegetable consumption during initial interviews of people suffering from foodborne illnesses. State and local health departments play a key role in investigating foodborne illness outbreaks by contacting people with laboratory-confirmed illnesses, recording possible exposures to pathogens, conducting inspections of food establishments and performing DNA analyses. Policies that govern state investigations vary widely across the country, an issue the produce industry discovered firsthand

A public hearing has been set for Dec. 2 in San Jose, CA, to determine whether a referendum should be held earlier than required by law on the fate of the California Cut Flower Commission. State law establishes the commission as an adjunct to the California Department of Food & Agriculture, which recently announced the hearing date, and requires a referendum among the state's growers every five years. The next one is due in 2010. However, a group of growers is pushing to have the referendum held earlier. The commission is funded by an assessment on growers selling more than $500,000 of flowers