BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- Colombia has enjoyed strong economic growth under the administration of President Alvaro Uribe. But the leader of this country, with a population of 40 million, is concerned that the U.S. Congress has been slow to approve a bilateral free-trade agreement with Colombia, which is regarded as one of the United States' closer allies in Latin America. The Produce News met with President Uribe May 11 at Palacio de Nari?o, a grand building in downtown Bogota that is the president's residence and is akin to The White House in Washington. The Harvard- and Oxford-educated President

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) reintroduced her AgJOBS bill May 14 to fix the broken H-2A seasonal worker program and help struggling agricultural employers retain a stable, legal workforce to produce the nation's food supply. "The central issue here is not immigration. It is about protecting and preserving the American economy," Sen. Feinstein said in a May 14 press statement. "With an inadequate supply of workers, farmers from Maine to California and from Washington state to Georgia have watched their produce rot and their farms lay fallow over the years," she said. "This

A group of 20 small- and medium-sized greenhouse owners in the Leamington, ON, area has banded together to collectively market its products. Andrew Przytocki, owner of Canpol Greenhouses Inc. in Leamington, one of the 20 producers involved in the venture, told The Produce News May 20, "Our group has purchased equal shares of Clifford Produce, an existing marketing company that handled about 50 acres of greenhouse produce. Our combined product, now totaling about 150 acres of cluster and beefsteak tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, will be marketed by Clifford Produce and will be branded with the

CAMARILLO, CA -- A new state-of-the-art, technologically advanced greenhouse facility, which is being touted as the future of sustainable agriculture, was unveiled May 14 by Houweling Nurseries, here. According to a media alert issued by The Oppenheimer Group, the facility was "built at a cost of over $50 million, Houweling's has created a sustainable and controlled greenhouse growth environment that maximizes productivity, generates green/renewable energy, radically minimizes water consumption, recycles nutrients, allows no environmental runoff and generates over 450 full-time, year-round

FRESNO, CA -- The harvest of the 2009 California fresh fig crop was already underway when The Produce News talked to Karla Stockli, chief executive officer of the California Fig Advisory Board and the California Fresh fig Growers Association, here, on Friday, May 15. The association expects fresh fig shipments for the state to total between 9.5 million and 10.5 million pounds for 2009, similar to or perhaps slightly below last year's shipments of 10.4 million pounds. Demand for fresh figs has been increasing over the last several years, and California fresh fig production has been growing at a

OVIEDO, FL -- As the California Navel orange season draws to a close early this year with lighter-than-expected volumes, Duda Farm Fresh Foods will offer Chilean Navel oranges to customers from coast to coast beginning June 15. This is the first year that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved Chilean Navel oranges for export to the United States. Chilean Navels offer a win-win scenario for Duda Farm Fresh Foods and its customers. Chilean Navels are grown with flavor in mind, left to naturally ripen on the tree. Because of the high sugar-to-acid ratio, Chilean Navels provide a sweeter