On Sept. 20, Kelley Precythe, vice president of Southern Produce Distributors Inc., headquartered in Faison, NC, told The Produce News that the company was eagerly looking forward to exhibiting at the Produce Marketing Association Fresh Summit in New Orleans, Oct. 18-20. The company is a major grower, marketer and shipper of sweet potatoes, although it does delve into other fresh produce items.

Cup o' Cherries, innovative new packaging exclusive to Chelan Fresh Marketing of Chelan, WA, will be featured at Booth No. 4157 during October's PMA Fresh Summit in New Orleans.

Bi-Lo Holdings LLC will rebrand the Sweetbay and Reid's banners as Winn-Dixie and BI-LO respectively. The changes will take place following the close of its transaction with Delhaize Group in early 2014. Harveys will also be acquired as part of the same deal, but Bi-Lo will continue to use that banner.

Evaluations are under way to determine how much damage has been done to Chile's winter fruit crop as a result of recent frosts.

Mike Rodgers, director of East Coast operations for Giumarra Vineyards, told The Produce News Oct. 9 that "it is too early to tell" what damage cold weather has done in Chile. "Most of the damage is to stone fruit and cherries. Grapes have been hit, [but] we don't know how bad."

Rodgers, whose office is in Wilmington, DE, said there were two freezes six days apart.

Tanimura & Antle, a leading grower-shipper based in Salinas, CA, had its greenhouse-grown butter lettuce independently certified as Pesticide Residue Free.

Lettuce packages will feature a new certification mark alerting shoppers to this unique product benefit. Tanimura & Antle said it is the first to obtain this certification for greenhouse-grown lettuce.

Kingston Fresh announced that its mango crop from Ecuador will get an early start this year, which is fortuitous timing considering the high customer demand for the fruit.