BOSTON -- Mark DeFrancesco is quite proud of 4M Fruit Distributors' new space here at the New England Produce Center. "We're on the move again," Mr. DeFrancesco told The Produce News. "This is an addition that we have been trying to make for the last few years, and like the old saying goes, location and timing are everything. "A lot of companies tend to be stagnant, while we on the other hand are a lot more aggressive," he added. "At 4M, we all have one goal: to meet all of our customers' specific needs. As times are changing, so is the customer base. That so-called built-in business is much

Ever since the infamous Bugsy Siegel opened the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas in 1946, people from around the world have flocked to the city in increasing numbers every year. Today, the city offers 124,270 hotel rooms to provide accommodations for over 37 million annual visitors, on top of the resident population of about 60,000. It hosts 3,749 conventions every year. Any way you cut it, Las Vegas has a lot of mouths to feed. There is no produce terminal market in the city, but that doesn't mean high- end hotels and restaurants struggle to procure the high quality and specialty produce they need

Mission Produce Inc. will introduce a new processed avocado product line at the United Fresh exposition in Las Vegas May 5-7, according to Ross Wileman, vice president of sales and marketing. The new line, which will initially consist of two flavors of guacamole, employs high-pressure technology that extends shelf life by destroying the bacteria in the product. "It basically pasteurizes the product to give you a 30-day shelf life," Mr. Wileman said. The high-pressure technology, which subjects the avocados to 84,000 pounds of water pressure, has been available "for a number of years," and

Locating the Fresh Tech and Fresh Marketplace expos together in Las Vegas is already paying off as the United Fresh Las Vegas 2008 show is anticipating record attendance in part due to the success of representing the entire supply chain under one roof, according to the group. United Fresh Las Vegas 2008 is the first show to merge the two expos, allowing attendees to talk with packaging machine suppliers and with marketers of value-added and organic produce. The new focus is a result of the merger between United and the International Fresh-cut Produce Association. "We had separate technology

VALLEY CENTER, CA -- Food editors from various consumer publications around the country, from Southern Living to Sunset, had an opportunity April 26 to tour avocado groves in Southern California, meet with growers, visit a small on-farm packing operation and a large commercial packinghouse, have their questions answered by industry experts, and sample some creative dishes using avocados as an ingredient. At Fairfield Farms, an organic avocado, citrus and blueberry farm near Valley Center in northern San Diego County, participants had the opportunity to walk through the avocado groves, witness

WASHINGTON -- The board of directors of the United Fresh Produce Association has voted to implement a new organizational structure for its volunteer leadership, to be implemented following this year's annual convention, May 4-7 in Las Vegas, NV. The new structure will consist of four horizontal boards representing different market segments of the produce supply chain, which in turn will roll up into a consolidated overall board of Directors representing the association's membership. "As our board engaged in strategic planning over the past six months, it was clear that one of our key strengths