For the 2015 season, the California avocado industry has hit the trifecta in terms of positive attributes. The crop is about a month earlier, there will be about 10 percent more volume in terms of pounds and the fruit itself is larger.

NatureSweet Tomatoes, headquartered in San Antonio, TX, is the nation’s leader in the small tomato category.

NatureSweet relaunched its flagship “Glorys” brand in February with a unique new package and a great new taste.

Last year, Freska Produce International LLC in Oxnard, CA, signed a two-year licensing agreement with the folks at Disney to use Disney characters on individual mangos and on some of its shipping cartons.

But, in fact, no fruit was shipped bearing the iconic images of Mickey and Minnie or Donald and Pluto.

“To be honest you have to jump through a lot of hoops to be able to use those characters and we weren’t quite ready last year,” said Gary Clevenger, managing member and co-founder of the mango-centric firm.

In the first weeks of March, 20 of the 65 packinghouse members of Empacadoras de Mango de Exportación, A.C. will have ramped up their seasonal production to export about 800,000 boxes mangos per week. Luis Jordan García, who heads the operations department of this group, known as EMEX, said the Ataulfo variety is Mexico’s largest-volume early-season mango variety.

Tanimura & Antle has recently decided to go back to its original T leaf A logo, which has been reintroduced as a mainstay behind the premier West Coast lettuce house. The company said the reintroduction of this logo represents a continued dedication to the foundation of the partnership of two iconic farming families, and it manifests T&A’s core values: natural, sustainable, f

Sysco Corp. has extended the deadline for its merger with US Foods. The initial deadline, March 8, was pushed back 60 days to May 7, two days after a hearing on the Federal Trade Commission’s claim that the deal would violate the antitrust laws.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the May 5 trial will determine if there is a temporary injunction on the deal before the FTC’s administrative trial begins July 21, two-and-a-half months after the merger’s new deadline.