Al Harrison Co. Distributors, based in Nogales, AZ, has been cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for failure to pay for nearly $700,000 worth of produce, but its principal said he plans to return to the industry once the legal matters are satisfied.

According to an April 9 statement from the USDA, the firm failed to pay $690,537 to 12 sellers for 104 lots of produce, in violation of PACA law.

Deardorff Family Farms is adding kales and collards (in all colors) as well as butter lettuces to its lineup of organic items currently being offered from the Salinas Valley.  The new program adds to an already strong partnership between the Deardorff family and the Bunn family — both are fourth-generation growers with more than 70 years of farming experience.  The full lineup of items now includes Romaine, green leaf, red leaf, red butter lettuce, green butter lettuce, celery, cauliflower, broccoli and the new bunching items.

VIDALIA, GA — Short supplies of sweet onions from elsewhere have the market primed for the annual Vidalia onion crop, which by all accounts is shaping up to be the best in four years.

Potandon Produce LLC, a leading potato and onion marketer based in Idaho Falls, ID, is reprising its successful and popular mini potato display shipper for the 2015 spring-summer selling season.

Think pink, think empowerment. Then visit Tomato Specialists Inc. at Booth No. 205 at the Canadian Produce Marketing Association Convention and Trade Show.

The company, headquartered in Lehigh Acres, FL, will unveil its new all-cause marketing campaign and creation of its sister/memorial company, J.V. Steele Inc., at this year’s CPMA show. The product specially tied to rollout is pink onions, which the company is importing from England.

Westmoreland Sales “TopLine,” headquartered in Leamington, Ontario, continues to send out a consistent message about its “TopLine” brand of greenhouse produce.

“Our greenhouse vegetables are always the freshest, most flavorful and grower-direct gourmet greenhouse produce available in today’s marketplace,” said Jimmy Coppola, account and marketing manager for Westmoreland.