The Giumarra International Berry Division of the Los Angeles-based Giumarra Cos. is “a year-round berry company focusing primarily on blueberries and blackberries, with smaller volumes of strawberries and raspberries in certain windows as well,” Tom Richardson, vice president of global development, said in an interview with The Produce News Sept. 3.

Frank A. Ramos is co-owner with his wife, Ana, of Miami-based The Perishable Specialist Inc., a licensed customs brokerage company. It is a leading brokerage firm specializing in fresh fruits and vegetables.

“Our clients are reporting increases for the upcoming season,” said Ramos. “There is excitement from the Peruvians regarding their blueberry program. And organic blueberries from Argentina are making a big buzz among our clients.”

Last season, for the first time in five or six decades, fresh fruit was permitted to arrive into the United States from South America and Central America under a pilot program.

Previously, standards were not at the level they are today: there was a lack of refrigeration and there were different import protocols in place to ensure pests and diseases that could damage domestic crops did not enter the U.S.

“We’re bringing some in and shipping some out,” Herb Haun, vice president of Haun Packing, said on Sept. 3 of his family’s Weiser, ID-based operation’s 2014 onion season.

“We started packing on August 14, which is about normal for us,” Haun said. “And then onions themselves are also very normal this year — good quality, and our volume will be up from last year. But it’s still early, and we don’t really know how things will turn out until we get all the onions into storage.”

Harvest of the 2014 crop of Spanish Sweets kicked off on Aug. 11 for J.C. Watson in Parma, ID, and company President Jon Watson said volume is up and quality is excellent.

“We had an unusually hot summer, but with our drip irrigation 100 percent in place we grew a very nice crop,” he said. “It is the best crop I’ve ever had, in fact.”

Watson said the onions came on “a little early, which benefits putting them into storage,” and he added, “We picked a good year to have large-size bulbs.”

This year, members of Certified Onions will test approximately 75 percent of onions produced in the Treasure Valley. “We have 25 members,” said President Kay Riley, who is also general manager of Snake River Produce Co. in Nyssa, OR. Roughly 15,000 acres of onion-producing land is held by the organization’s membership.

Certified Onions Inc. is a nonprofit organization. Members voluntarily undergo stringent testing for off-label pesticide use and maximum residue levels. Third-party auditing is performed at both the field and shed levels.