California Giant Berry Farms recently teamed up with blogger Coryanne Ettiene and the Urban Girls Squad, a social networking group in New York City for women in their 20s and 30s, to host an exclusive berry party, NYC style. The event was held  April 23 at the GE Monogram Center in the Iconic Architects & Designers Building in mid-town New York.

CHERRY HILL, NJ — Fresh produce importer and distributor Sbrocco International Inc. was a key sponsor at a charity basketball event Saturday, April 20, and Sunday, April 21, at a venue just a short distance from the company's headquarters here in southwestern New Jersey.

Expanded grower tours and education sessions, a golf tournament on a championship course, distinguished service awards, a floral fashion show and the world’s largest display of California flowers and greenery under one roof are highlights of the biennial Fun ‘N Sun Weekend sponsored by NORCAL, the California association of flower growers and shippers.

More than 200 veterans or national cemeteries will have the graves of military veterans decorated with roses on Memorial Day, May 27, through the Memorial Day Flowers Program.

Ramiro Peñaherrera, head of the Flowers for Kids program and a director of the new nonprofit foundation sponsoring the Memorial Day project, told The Produce News as of late April that about 170 floral retail operations had already signed up.

Nevado Roses in Ecuador opened a new I Love Roses luxury rose shop in the new airport near Quito, Ecuador, in a ceremony on April 15. The shop in the tax-free departures area of the International Departures Hall in the newly inaugurated Mariscal Antonio Jose de Sucre International Airport will carry a variety of rose products, the company stated in a news release.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved nearly $3.3 million to fund critical floral and nursery industry research projects in 2013 through the 2008 farm bill pest and disease program. This includes several projects of direct benefit to greenhouse and nursery growers, according to a news release from the Society of American Florists.