The Fresh Produce & Floral Council, which pioneered the concept of regional trade shows more than 25 years ago, is holding its Northern California Expo today at the Alameda Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, CA. As in the previous years, this year's show is a sell-out.

The all-day event differs a bit from its Southern California Expo counterpart held in July, as today's Expo is strictly a trade show with no additional programming.

Suntreat Packing & Shipping Co. continues its Reserve Citrus line of limited-availability varieties with the Gold Nugget, which began harvest the first week of April — available only in April and May.

The Gold Nugget is a sweet, seedless, bright orange medium-sized Mandarin with a bumpy easy-to-peel and aromatic skin.

Sumo Citrus, the first in Suntreat's Reserve Citrus line, has received rave reviews from both retailers and consumers for its superior Mandarin orange attributes.

“Our very warm winter is creating some very large potential on the agricultural scene,” said Mary Ostlund, director of marketing for Brooks Tropicals, a leading grower-shipper of tropical fruits and vegetables headquartered in Homestead, FL.

“ ‘SlimCado’ avocados and starfruit flowers indicate good sized crops coming our way this year,” she said.

Brooks Tropicals handles a wide range of tropical fresh produce items.

The onion market has firmed up with performance eclipsing early season predictions, leading Don Ed Holmes of The Onion House LLC in Weslaco, TX, to think it will be a good year.

“It should be a darn good year but not a crazy one like 2010,” he said.

In 2010, onion prices hovered around $40 a box for the entire season due to low supply. In 2011-12, Texas growers chasing those markets planted additional acreage that led to oversupply and a race to the bottom of the market.

Valhalla Sales & Marketing Inc., based in Kingsbury, CA, added GERRY SCHEIDT to its sales and customer development team on April 8.

Prior to joining Valhalla, Mr. Scheidt worked for Gerawan Farming in Reedley, CA, for 32 years. He has also previously worked for Sunny Cal, Surabian Packing and HMC Kingsbury.

Mr. Scheidt has been involved in the produce industry for 45 years. He got his start by working for Topco Associates as a federal state inspector. After four years as an inspector he switched gears and began his career in sales.

Though wild winter weather was still leading to strange events like sub-freezing temperatures as far south as Houston in late March, Texas grower-shippers on the whole are set up for excellent onion, melon and tropical deals this spring.

The onion deal looks to be especially promising for Texas.

Northwest storage supplies are lighter than they have been in years and there are very few onions still coming out of Mexico.