NAPLES, FL -- Despite the lack of a single tomato-related food-safety incident in the past year, that topic was at the forefront during the first two days of meetings at the 34th annual Florida Joint Tomato Conference held Sept. 8-14 at the Ritz-Carlton, here. The conference was hosted by the Florida Tomato Committee and the Florida Tomato Exchange. Reggie Brown, manager of the Maitland-based Florida Tomato Committee and executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Exchange, opened the Sept. 9 session by addressing growers and shippers, who saw revenues drop by half in the 2008-09 season

The executive staff at the Ottawa, ON-based Dispute Resolution Corp. calls it "silly season," referring to the time of year when less-than-scrupulous operators seemingly come out of the woodwork and basically steal loads of U.S. produce and dump them on the Canadian marketplace at well below market values. "It's an industrywide problem," said Fred Webber, vice president of trading assistance for the DRC. "It's that time of year that production from up here is drawing to a close and virtually everyone is importing from the U.S." He said that the illegitimate operators end up getting loads of

FirstFruits Marketing of Washington, based in Yakima, has added a new apple packer to its supply mix. Columbia Valley Fruit, a premier Yakima Valley packer of conventional and organic apples, will begin marketing its fruit through FirstFruits Marketing this season. "We are responding to the marketplace," Orlin Knutson, co-owner of Columbia Valley Fruit, said in a Sept. 8 press release. Customers are telling us that they prefer to have direct access to the producer. This new marketing company creates that direct link between our customers and the grower. In addition to Columbia Valley Fruit

Tanimura & Antle hosted its fifth annual 20-year Employee Club celebration Aug. 23 at the private home of Mike and Cass Antle in Corral de Tierra, CA. This annual event honors employees who have served 20 and 25 years. Ten new members were inducted into the 20-Year Club and 12 employees were honored for their 25 years of service. "Recognizing that 85 percent of the company's assets consist of knowledge, reputation and employee talent, we realize that we would not be where we are today if not for the contributions and dedication of our employees, especially the members of the 20-year Club,"

On Sept. 1, in advance of Hurricane Jimena, unstable weather conditions produced a tornado effect that tore through an Andrew & Williamson Sales Co. Inc. cucumber farm in Baja California, ripping out a 12.5-acre shade house. Farm managers prepared for the worst as the storm headed directly up the center of Baja, with expectations that it would go right over the major tomato-producing area a day-and-a-half later. "Luckily the majority of the storm passed 250 miles south and never got to us," John King, vice president of sales for the firm, told The Produce News. "We got about three inches of

Quick industry action in late August resulted in the recall of potentially tainted cantaloupes and green onions with no reports of illnesses by Sept. 1. In separate incidents, some cantaloupes from a Florida farm and some green onions from a Mexican farm tested positive for Salmonella, which resulted in the removal of the products from supermarket shelves and distribution centers. The shippers and retailers involved acted quickly, which appeared to limit exposure to consumers and isolate the problem lots. The cantaloupe problem involved cantaloupes sold by Melon Acres in Oaktown, IN, and