Orange, CA-based Interfresh Sales welcomed KEN VIDA to its sales staff.

Vida’s primary role at Interfresh will be to expand national avocado sales, a company press release stated.

“From our perspective, there is no more important issue for all growers, but particularly for growers of table grapes,” than immigration reform, because table grape production is “so labor intensive,” said Barry Bedwell, president of the California Grape & Tree Fruit League, in an interview with The Produce News.

“Rambutan is truly an exotic gourmet fruit with an appearance that will impress food lovers around the world,” Marc Holbik, director of grower relations for Ecoripe Tropicals in Medley, FL, told The Produce News. “The translucent flesh of this tree fruit has a crisp, agreeable, sweet grape-like flavor with just a hint of tartness. The reddish exterior shell is covered with soft, flexible, hair-like bristles that give Rambutan one of the more exotic appearances for a fruit.”

SALINAS, CA -- The evening prior to the opening of the Produce Marketing Association's Foodservice expo, several hundred members of the industry gathered at the Church Bros. ranch in Salinas to get reconnect and indulge in some good food, drinks and fun. But doing business was not necessarily on the agenda.

GloriAnn Farms, a year-round shipper of high-quality value-added sweet corn, and Five Crowns Marketing, its partner and a grower-shipper of high-quality fruits and vegetables, announced their "Support Our Troops" promotion. This is the second year for the program.

For every retail case of corn sold in August, GloriAnn Farms will make a donation to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which contributes to the families of military personnel lost or injured in duty.

The National Mango Board has added new nutrition marketing messages to its existing industry list to strengthen the superfruit’s nutrition story, available now at www.mango.org/nutrition. This effort is part of the NMB’s nutrition outreach program, which helps spread the word about mango nutrition to U.S. consumers.