WASHINGTON -- With immigration reform in limbo, the border crackdown continuing and planting season around the corner, the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association's top leaders see the continuing farm labor shortage as the most pressing issues facing growers today. The association's top leaders met June 23-24 and the top issue on the agenda was the concern over dimming prospects for immigration reform in Congress. "Labor is the most important challenge facing Florida producers today," FFVA Chairman Tony DiMare said during the two-day meeting. Earlier this month, Republican leaders in the House

Kathy Fry, marketing director for the Walla Walla Sweet Onion Marketing Committee, said that this year's Walla Walla Sweet Onion Festival July 14-16 is going to be a chart-topper. For the first time in its 22-year history, the event has been expanded to more than two days, and admission and parking are free to all attendees. A kickoff dinner and silent auction will be held Friday, July 14, to honor the valley's sweet onion growers and acknowledge the support of event sponsors. The festival will then move into high gear at the Walla Walla County Fairgrounds on Saturday and Sunday, July 15-16

Pro*Act, a leading fresh produce supplier to the foodservice industry based in Monterey, CA, announced that Bamford Produce in Toronto has joined the company's distribution network. Bamford Produce, founded in 1881, is the oldest produce company in Canada. Under the direction of Jim Bamford and his son, Steve, members of the third and fourth generation, respectively, Bamford has three divisions: Bamford Produce, its foodservice distribution company; Freshline Foods, its fresh fruit and vegetable processing division; and Fresh Advancements, its wholesale division on the Toronto Terminal Market

MOFFAT, CO -- Armed with just under a ton of baked potatoes and gallons of toppings, a small army of 30 volunteers from the Colorado Potato Administrative Committee greeted and, for the fourth consecutive year, carbo-loaded some 2,400 participants in the famed Ride the Rockies bicycle tour. The tour, now in its 21st year, kicked off in the Four Corners city of Cortez, spanned 451 miles in six days and reached elevations of more than 11,000 feet above sea level as it meandered through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and northern New Mexico. Tour volunteer Ed Roberts told The Produce News this

A proposed rule change offered June 27 by the Agriculture Marketing Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeks to allow UglyRipe tomatoes to be shipped outside Florida. The rule change is subject to a 60-day comment period, which began June 29. The UglyRipe tomato, developed over decades with more than $3 million in research funding by Procacci Bros. Sales Corp. in Philadelphia, was previously forbidden for sale outside the Florida winter growing region. The Florida Tomato Committee, a group of competing growers sanctioned by federal law dating to the 1950s, set all size and shape

SALINAS, CA -- J. Marchini & Son has long had radicchio growing in fields in Salinas and nearby Watsonville and Hollister. To complement that effort, the Le Grand, CA-based company, located 30 miles east of Fresno, opened a sales office in Salinas June 19. Sales Manager Jenny Nelson is the lone representative in the new Salinas office. "The move has been planned for some time," Ms. Nelson said. "It's been time to spread our wings." Ms. Nelson has been with the company for more than six years and has been sales manager for two years. The company is known as one of the original radicchio growers