Sweet and juicy New Zealand apricots are back again at The Oppenheimer Group, and the marketer is kicking the season off with air shipments arriving on both coasts the week of Jan. 16, according to a company press release.

Melissa’s World Variety Produce line “consists of over 350 organic fruits and vegetables,” said Robert Schueller, director of public relations for the Los Angeles company. “We have been certified organic for 12 years.”

Mr. Schueller said that winter means citrus, and the company’s wide line of organic options includes Navel oranges, lemons and numerous mandarin varieties.

Just six years after making the decision to grow organic onions in addition to the conventional onions it already produced, Yerington, NV-based Peri & Sons Farms considers the venture a great success, according to a Jan. 17 company press release. Starting with just three acres of organic onion production in 2006, today Peri & Sons’ organic onion acreage has increased hundreds of times over.

The Republic of Lithuania port of Klaipeda and the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding Jan. 20 that promises to open Philadelphia ports to the European and Asian shipping trade via the ice-free port of Klaipeda, the Lithuanian port city on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea.

Pure Hot House Foods Inc. recently hired 10-year greenhouse veteran MARINA DAVIDSON as the director of procurement for the company, effective Jan. 16.