Continued growth at Ippolito International LP has created the need to add two additional salespeople to its team, a company official told The Produce News. Produce veteran Bill Vargas and newcomer Brittany Corda recently joined the Ippolito sales team, according to Butch Corda, the firm's general manager. "Bill joined the sales team approximately two months ago," he said March 24. "I had the good fortune of having Bill as one of my salesman at a previous produce company for close to 10 years, and I consider myself very fortunate to have a second opportunity to have a man of his experience and

Palmetto, FL-based Taylor & Fulton Packing LLC has partnered with Fish Farms in Newport, TN, to provide fresh tomatoes to the East Coast on a year- round basis. The company also brought aboard industry veteran Barry Stein to coordinate the partnership. "I've been doing this a long time," Mr. Stein told The Produce News March 29. "I'm excited to be here to help the company coordinate and offer the trade tomatoes 12 months a year. Good, Eastern tomatoes 12 months a year - that's hard to beat." Ed Angrisani, who owns Taylor & Fulton with partners Jim Grainger and Brian Turner, told The Produce

The Canada Border Services Agency has initiated an investigation into the alleged injurious dumping of greenhouse Bell peppers originating in or exported from the Netherlands. The Ontario Produce Marketing Association in Toronto issued a notice of the action March 31 to its membership. The investigation follows a complaint filed by the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers in Leamington, ON, alleging that the dumping of these goods is harming Canadian production by causing lost sales, price erosion, price suppression, reduction in gross margins and reduced profits. The Canadian International

WASHINGTON -- Some members of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Fruit & Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee gave a cold shoulder to USDA's buy local emphasis in school farming initiatives during a March 30 meeting, here. The 25-member panel, which represents growers, retailers and other segments of the produce industry, heard updates from officials from USDA and the Food & Drug Administration on key policy issues confronting the industry this year. Among the agenda items were updates on commodity procurements, the proposed leafy greens marketing agreement, FDA produce safety regulations

Many companies are meeting the Produce Traceability Initiative's first milestones, but the industry is also taking a wait-and-see approach in tackling the final steps, according to a new survey released March 25. The produce industry has been eagerly awaiting results from an on-line survey of 263 fresh fruit and vegetable companies conducted to benchmark the adoption of the Produce Traceability Initiative. Results of the survey were shared with the PTI steering committee at a Dallas meeting last month but were not released to the public until March 25. The Produce Marketing Association, the

Some trade associations representing the grower-shipper community have raised concerns about the Produce Traceability Initiative, specifically its cost, the commitment of the whole chain to its enactment and the timetable. Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual, a Visalia, CA-based organization that represents the growers and packers of that commodity category, recently sent a letter, which he made public, to the presidents of both the United Fresh Produce Association and the Produce Marketing Association, asking that the PTI implementation timetable be postponed. In addition, Mr