The creation of Babé Farms Specialties can be credited to its visionary founder, Will Souza, a third-generation farmer from a pioneer farm family in the Santa Maria Valley, CA.

With over 600 SKUs and growing, it is one of the busiest specialty vegetable farming operations on the West Coast.

The summer air in the Pacific Northwest turned decidedly frosty on June 4 with the news that Broetje Orchards LLC will pay a record $2.25 million civil penalty fine following a settlement agreement with U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement.

Representatives of the fresh produce industry took the time to speak with The Produce News to provide their reactions and comments.

VINELAND, NJ — A new cooling unit was installed at the Vineland Produce Auction around the end of March, “just in time” for the 2015 New Jersey spring vegetable season, the auction’s Carol DeFoor told The Produce News Monday afternoon, May 11.

The new unit, which does hydrocooling, vacuum cooling and wetvac cooling, is in addition to the existing cooling equipment at the auction. “One of the benefits of this new cooling unit is that it shortens the cooling process,” she said. It has the capacity to cool nine pallets at a time.

Though California is suffering through one of its worst droughts in history, the California mature green tomato deal appears to be fairly normal this year, according to longtime participant and observer Joe Bernardi, president of Bernardi & Associates, with headquarters in Nogales, AZ.

On this late May day, Bernardi was driving through the San Joaquin Valley in California, which is the backdrop for his summer office in Turlock. “The deal should start around June 1 and last until mid-November,” he said. “Right now it looks fairly normal” in terms of volume.

With more than 100 years of experience and three generations of family members serving at its helm, Peri & Sons Farms knows what it takes to move premium onions to the marketplace. The company is headquartered in Yerington, NV, and has growing operations in Central and Southern California.

On June 5, information in the National Potato and Onion Report was updated with data from the Agricultural Marketing Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The following data were provided regarding the 2015 onion season in California’s San Joaquin Valley.