California produce marketer DJ Forry is set to release its new Forry's Finest Sweet Bursts pomegranate arils.

Sweet Bursts will arrive to market in a new two-serving tub package configuration. This new aril package represents the latest in a line of stand-up pouch offerings, which include California grapes, cherries and stone fruit.

Students and teachers from high schools in Rowan County, NC, are engaged in a new project that seeks to bring science and math concepts alive through agriculture. They are taking a leap from their textbooks to hands-on learning at an outdoor laboratory with access to world-class researchers.

KENT, CT — The Davis IGA supermarket, here, has experienced a big jump in produce sales since it completed a major renovation and remodeling project that touched all areas of the store, especially the fresh produce department, according to one of the company’s owners.

Reggie Griffin likes to say he didn’t do too much but rather just surrounded himself with a very good team during his more than 40 years at Kroger. But suppliers and fellow retailers know better.

The Kroger Co. has received very high marks from the produce industry over the years as far as being an innovative retailer that has a great relationship with its suppliers and was not afraid to think outside the box.

Demand may be on the rise for fresh California figs, but markets are expanding as well for tree nuts such as almonds, pistachios and walnuts, and J. Marchini Farms in Le Grand, CA, sees greater opportunity in the nuts, with fewer obstacles.

Unlike some growers who have been pulling out fig orchards in order to plant nut trees, “we are going to keep our figs,” said Marc Marchini, sales and marketing manager for the company’s figs. “But I think that we are not going to expand the figs. Rather, I am going to go where the real growth is — tree nuts.”

There was concern that the 2012 beneficiaries of the North Carolina Value-Added Cost Share program would be the last, since initial funding sunset at the end of the year. But the program, which has doled out almost $1.5 million in grants to a variety of agricultural producers since 2009, has found new life and is accepting applicants for the 2013 awards.