The Giumarra Cos. promoted Tom Richardson and Bruce Dowhan to its executive staff. Mr. Richardson will serve as vice president of global development, and Mr. Dowhan will serve as vice president and general manager of Giumarra Agricom and Giumarra Borquez.

“We’ve got quite a few things going on,” said Matt Mandel, vice president of sales and marketing at SunFed in Nogales, AZ, in an interview with The Produce News.

“First and foremost, we have a very much expanded program on organics,” he said.

Also, “a nice item that we are going to be adding to our portfolio is elongated red peppers.”

In addition to SunFed’s fruit and vegetable programs out of Mexico, “we are expanding our production in the Dominican Republic as well,” Mr. Mandel said.

Craig Uchizono, vice president, Southern Hemisphere for The Giumarra Cos., based in Los Angeles, said that the company offers a variety of produce from Chile, including avocados, blueberries, grapes, stone fruit, cherries, apples, pears, kiwifruit and citrus.

JMB Distributing Inc. in Nogales, AZ, specializes in beans. This year, “we still have the same bean program” as in the past, said Harry Spragia, the company’s president. “That is all we do. We specialize in them. We think we have either the top or one of the very top beans in North America on a consistent basis. Our label speaks for itself.”

The beans are being grown in Guasave in northern Sinaloa, Mexico, by a grower JMB has been working with for more than a decade. They are packed in one of two JMB house labels, either “Top Seven” or “Royal Gem.”

Season-to-date, the San Joaquin Valley citrus crop has felt minimal pressure from below-freezing temperatures as compared to last year, according to a press release issued by California Citrus Mutual, based in Exeter.

Overnight temperatures Jan. 2 dropped to a season low of 27 degrees in the coldest areas; however, the cold weather proved manageable and no damage to either the Navel or Mandarin crops was reported.

“With the exception of our heirloom tomatoes, Southern Specialties imports a wide range of products from Central America and South America, Canada and Mexico,” Charlie Eagle, vice president of business development for the Pompano Beach, FL-based company told The Produce News. “Our line includes ‘Southern Selects’ French beans, green and white asparagus, hand-peeled Brussels sprouts, hand-peeled baby carrots with tops, hand-peeled rainbow baby carrots with tops, sugar snap peas, snow peas, yellow beans, baby squash and limes.”