DAYTONA SHORES, FL -- The most significant freeze in a century had Florida farmers worried at midday Monday, Jan. 4, about the fate of the winter crops. An icy artic mass blew into the state over the weekend of Jan. 2-3, and promised to hover throughout the week, with an even more threatening blow expected this weekend (Jan. 9-10). "I've never been through something like this where it's [several] consecutive days of sub-freezing temperatures," industry veteran Sal Toscano of Plant City, FL, berry producer Sunny Ridge Farms told The Produce News Jan. 4. "I'll tell you the same thing I'm telling

The Eastern Produce Council's first New York Produce Show & Conference, set for Nov. 9-11 in the city of New York, will also offer networking events, workshops and tours of the Hunts Point Terminal Market, the new Philadelphia market, local retailers, restaurants and wholesale facilities. "New York City is the epicenter of the region that buys more fresh produce than any location in the country," EPC President Dean Holmquist, director of produce and floral for Foodtown Inc., said in a late December press release. EPC Executive Director John McAleavey added in the release, "The extraordinary

A familiar face in the Chilean produce industry has joined The Oppenheimer Group's Santiago team. Industry veteran Bill Lewis became the company's South American trade manager on Dec. 9. In his newly created role, he will concentrate on developing Oppenheimer's export programs, which currently include the destinations of Asia, Europe and Central America. Mr. Lewis brings three decades of industry expertise -- the last two of them spent in Chile -- to the position. Most recently, he served as a director and consultant to Santa Elena, a consortium of Chilean grape growers focused on European

LA MIRADA, CA -- The Fresh Produce & Floral Council will introduce the new 2010 board of directors to its membership at the annual FPFC dinner dance Jan. 30 at the Westin Long Beach. More than 600 produce and floral professionals are expected to be in attendance for an "Escape to Casablanca" themed evening that will feature roulette tables, a cigar lounge and a new dance band, Splash! Along with dancing, prize giveaways and other fun, the evening serves as the formal induction of the new chairman and directors. While the new board members will officially begin their terms Jan. 1, the gavel

EDINBURG, TX -- Frontera Produce Ltd., a vertically integrated grower, packer and shipper of fresh produce headquartered here in south Texas, announced Dec. 21 that it plans to pack a record number of cases of its MD2 Golden variety pineapples from Mexico to market from January through July. As sole owners and operators of Frontera Sur Produce, a 700-plus-acre pineapple plantation in Veracruz, Mexico, Frontera Produce projects to increase its Gold Pineapple production by close to 40 percent for the 2010 season. For the period January through July, Frontera Produce said that it will rank as one

The year 2009 has been "a historic year in the garlic industry" with a demand-exceeds-supply situation that has pushed prices for both domestic and imported product to higher levels than anyone has seen in a long time, according to Jim Provost, president of I Love Produce, a grower, importer and marketer of fresh garlic, ginger and specialty produce based in West Grove, PA. The price jump is largely a consequence of a 50-percent reduction in garlic plantings in China, a factor which has also given a boost to California's market share, Mr. Provost told The Produce News Dec. 17. "Heading into