Glennville, GA-based Bland Farms has increased its presence in key onion- growing areas and is now poised for future growth. "Bland Farms has a strategy in place that will enable us to grow and expand in many directions in the coming future," said Michael Hively, chief financial officer and general manager of the firm. "We recently broke ground on a new facility in Donna, Texas, near McAllen. It is 100,000 square feet and will have cooler space for 3,200 pallets. It will be used for storing and moving onions and custom-packing other commodities." The Donna operation will offer in-and-out

Thomas R. Ford, chairman of the Colorado Potato Administrative Committee in Monte Vista, CO, will be inducted into the Colorado Agriculture Hall of Fame in Denver on Feb. 28. Mr. Ford was one of several nominees to pass the rigorous screening process of the Montrose-based Colorado FFA Foundation Inc. Colorado Agriculture Commissioner John Stulp will preside over the award ceremony, which will be held at the Doubletree Hotel Denver located at 3202 Quebec Street. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. "What we're looking at is a positive impact on agriculture at the state level," said foundation

More than 600 members and guests honored the installation of Liane Mast as chairman of the board of the Fresh Produce & Floral Council at the organization's annual dinner dance, which was held Jan. 26 in Anaheim, CA. Ms. Mast is in charge of the floral departments for Stater Bros. Markets, one of the nation's larger independent regional supermarket chains, headquartered in Colton, CA. The officers installed along with Ms. Mast were Chairman-elect Ken Ewalt of Ready Pac and Treasurer Patty Knoll of Temkin International. Raul Gallegos of Bristol Farms moved to the post of immediate past chairman

AgriWorld Exchange, an on-line agri-trading marketplace, announced that Cal Citrus Packing Co., with a grower base of 4,000 acres, has signed an agreement to trade produce using the AgriWorld Exchange on-line service. The agreement will enable the company to offer its 2.5 million cartons of fresh citrus annually via on-line, real-time exchange. "AgriWorld Exchange is an exciting new way to trade citrus, and we have always been in the front lines of new business technology," Lori Van Leer of Cal Citrus Packing said in a press release. "We expect AgriWorld Exchange to greatly extend our sales

A new 25-pound carton for Washington state's famed Red Wing variety of onions is finding good reception from high-end foodservice customers, according to Bill (Sweet Willie) Brownfield of Sweet Clover Produce. From his Walla Walla, WA, office, Mr. Brownfield told The Produce News that the new carton provides better protection for the onions, and in addition to the Red Wings grown by Grigg & Sons in Quincy, WA, the box will be used to ship sweets and yellows. "We introduced the carton for the Red Wing variety, which will be available through May's new crop," Mr. Brownfield said. The reds have

Increasing customer demand spurred by the success of its non-stop unit train with guaranteed fifth-morning arrival from Washington state to upstate New York has prompted Railex LLC to add a second weekly unit train, which is scheduled to make its maiden voyage on Feb. 9 and arrive late at night on Feb. 15 Railex, a division of ADS Management LLC, operates the 55-car unit trains year round from two state-of-the-art, freight-forward distribution terminals in Wallula, WA, and Rotterdam, NY. Paul Esposito, senior vice president of sales and logistics for Railex, told The Produce News that he is