When John Pandos packed up his bags and left Boston for the Rio Grande Valley four years ago, it was on the proverbial "wing and a prayer," he admitted. "My cousins thought I was nuts," he said of the executives at Peter Condakes Co. Inc. in Boston, where he previously worked and has a family connection. "But I was coming down here and buying tomatoes from Texas [for Condakes] during their short two-month deal, and I saw an opportunity." Mr. Pandos said that in the other tomato deals he worked in California, Nogales, AZ, and Florida, there were plenty of transplants from the Northeast who knew

Persistent rain in parts of the South has hampered sweet potato harvesting in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas, with growers in those states as of Oct. 9 seeing 20-30 percent of their harvest complete compared to 50-70 percent by this time in a normal year. Rene Simon, executive director of the Louisiana Sweet Potato Commission in Baton Rouge, told The Produce News Oct. 12, "It's rainy, nasty here. The forecast is for more rain through Thursday, and then we expect to see clear skies. The ground has to dry out for a few days following this level of moisture, so I expect to see

Researchers, members of the fresh fruit industry and governmental officials have created a task force whose focus is to take proactive measures to stave off the impact of the newest pest found in Oregon and Washington. Bruce Pokarney, director of communications for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, said that drosophila suzukii - commonly known as the vinegar fruit fly - reared its head this past September in the Willamette Valley. "We have had general issues with fruit flies, which eat rotting fruit," he told The Produce News in early October. "What makes this guy unique is this one likes

Jesse Driskill, who in March 2008 was named president for the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas in Nogales, AZ, announced his resignation in order to take a position with Meyer LLC in Nogales, effective Nov. 16, immediately following the FPAA convention. "We wish him well. It is a great opportunity for him," Chris Ciruli, FPAA chairman and chief operating officer of Ciruli Bros. Inc. in Nogales, told The Produce News Oct. 16. Mr. Driskill was out of the office and was not immediately available for comment. Meyer LLC is a long-standing member of the association, so even though Mr

The produce industry has long complained about competing Good Agricultural Practice audits, and now a new working group will meet next month to start hammering out a single standard for all third-party GAP audits by October 2010. "We've created a monster allowing different standards to propagate," said David Gombas, project coordinator for the GAP harmonization effort and senior vice president for food safety and technology at the United Fresh Produce Association. There are growers and handlers experiencing redundant and sometimes conflicting GAP audits, according to Dr. Gombas, who added that

NEW YORK -- Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. will celebrate its 80th anniversary next year and kicked off festivities with its Big Apple Bog, held here Oct. 6-8 at Rockefeller Center. The event, part of the cooperative's Bogs Across America promotion, included a 1,500-square-foot freestanding cranberry bog with more than 2,000 pounds of fresh cranberries built in Rockefeller Plaza in front of the GE building. Several of the cooperative's growers answered questions from visitors about cranberries, ranging from the history and health benefits of the fruit to their personal stories about cranberry