"Our South African citrus program began with limited supplies in June," said David Mixon, senior vice president of Seald-Sweet International, headquartered in Vero Beach, FL. "Due to growing conditions, supplies were somewhat late -- about two to three weeks behind last year. On a long-term average, it makes this year's movement about four weeks later than normal." The erratic movement start is attributable to varying weather conditions in South Africa's citrus-growing regions. Mr. Mixon said that temperatures were warmer and the region received more rainfall than normal. Besides a delayed

With rising fuel costs affecting California growers' ability to get loads of produce shipped, one southern San Joaquin Valley grower-packer-shipper found that a project that began predominantly as a convenience for truckers and a timesaving element has yielded real fuel- and cost-saving, emission- reducing and area traffic-lowering benefits that greatly exceed the company's original plan. "Installing an on-site truck scale on an adjacent parking lot was a project originally implemented as a strategic workflow enhancement," Pete Hronis, vice president and sales manager of family-owned Hronis

Coastline Produce in Salinas, CA, is offering premium clipped and washed green beans in microwaveable bags. The new value-added product is a 12- ounce bag packed six or nine bags per carton. Receivers have a choice of an English-only version or a French/English bilingual version for the Canadian marketplace. The green beans were introduced in response to customer requests and consumer desires, according to Phil Adrian, a partner in Coastline. "When we spoke with consumers, they said they wanted fresh, good-flavored green beans with the convenience of being able to microwave in the bag," he

SHERMAN OAKS, CA -- Sunkist Growers is realigning its sales operations, trading bricks and mortar for electronic technology to better serve its customers, shippers and growers. According to Mark Tompkins, Sunkist's director of domestic fresh fruit sales, the changes are a result of a comprehensive business evaluation undertaken by the cooperative citrus marketing organization. Sunkist's fresh fruit sales divisions in collaboration with The Monitor Group, a renowned global strategy and management firm, restructured its sales operations and customizing practices to better compete and win in

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Department of Agriculture officials took the first crack at fielding scores of questions about the new country-of-origin labeling rule during an Aug. 6 webinar sponsored by the Produce Marketing Association and Western Growers Association. The webinar was the first opportunity members from both trade groups had to hear top-level Agricultural Marketing Service staff members navigate through specific questions regarding how the produce industry should comply with the Aug. 1 interim final rule, which goes into effect Sept. 30. Under COOL, perishable products, meats and nuts

This is an interesting food industry. It is amazing to see how it evolves from year to year under so many struggles and challenges. Yet it continues to change dramatically and move forward each time we turn around. I can remember being invited to a milestone birthday celebration for the founder of a large produce growing and shipping company. After the traditional birthday cake ceremony, it was gift opening time. The guest of honor was handed one gift at a time by his family members for him to open. Most of the gifts were in average-size packages. But when one very small parcel was handed to