Aarti Sequeira, Food Network Star Season 6 winner and host of her own Aarti Party cooking show, has joined the National Mango Board as its new spokesperson.

The celebrity chef and the board first partnered on a multi-city satellite and internet media tour to reach consumers in several important markets, as well as a packaged taping that will appear on cable and web television channels across the country.

Florida Citrus Mutual's board of directors announced its elected officers for the 2012-13 season. Mark Wheeler, chief financial officer of Wheeler Farms Inc. in Lake Placid, will serve as Mutual's president during the year. He succeeds Victor Story Jr., who will remain on Mutual's Executive Committee.

LOS ANGELES — California Vegetable Exchange Inc., here, a produce broker and wholesale firm founded by Tom Kunisaki and incorporated in the state of California in 1966, has suspended operations following the filing of a PACA claim last month by a group of creditors.

According to a Blue Book Services Inc. credit update, Cal-O Vegetable Exchange had suspended operations as of May 14, with "obligations reported not fully liquidated."

PESQUEIRA, MEXICO — The roughly 10-week harvest in the Hermosillo, Sonora, area was in full-swing in early June, when 1,000 workers at Grupo Agrícola Alta’s Pozo Manuel vineyards labored to get as many as 25 trucks a day on their way to the three-hour drive to the U.S. port of entry at Nogales, AZ. Depending on the client, Grupo Agrícula packs in bags or plastic containers known as clamshells.

Nancy Pickersgill, marketing coordinator for Mastronardi Produce Ltd., headquartered in Leamington, ON, said the company has made significant increases in its greenhouse grown organic program this year.

“We are at 100 percent growth rate so far this year,” said Ms. Pickersgill. “The demand for tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers has us in a sold-out situation at this time of year. ‘Mastronardi Produce/Sunset Organics’ line continues to offer a variety of tomatoes, peppers and regular and mini cucumbers, based on consumer demands.”

Tom Deardorff, II, president of Deardorff Family Farms in Oxnard, CA, told The Produce News that the big news of the day for the company is that it began shipping out of its new LEED facility, also in Oxnard, in mid-May.

“LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design,” Mr. Deardorff explained. “We’ll be moving into it completely. It’s only about a mile away from our current facility, which makes the transition a bit easier.”