As the 2014 Idaho-Eastern Oregon onion shipping season draws closer and the industry looks forward to volume and excellent quality out of the Treasure Valley, some sellers and buyers have already planned for consistent availability by contracting supplies ahead of time.

A Dinuba, CA-based packinghouse and cold-storage company is in line for the new California Competes Tax Credit, one of 31 companies across the state selected to participate in the new program.

Fresh Select LLC is the only Central Valley company in the running for $500,000 out of a total of about $30 million in tax credits available. A committee is scheduled to vote June 19 in Sacramento on the first round of tax credits.

Market Fresh, based in Nixa, MO, announced the addition of Adam Faust to its corporate staff on May 28.

“Eastern Shore potato growers got a little later start than normal,” Butch Nottingham, marketing specialist for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, headquartered in Richmond, VA, told The Produce News in late May. “The weather was wet and cool which slowed down planting. But now we’re getting weather that is highly conducive for growing and so the crop is looking really good. One grower I spoke with yesterday said that his crop was catching up quickly, and he anticipates a normal start time of June 17. We should be in full swing by early July.”

When sharp business intuition met experience and opportunity, The Produce Mom was born.

Lori Taylor had worked for Indianapolis Fruit Co. Inc. for nine years, the last two as inside sales manager for the large produce distributor. Taylor spoke Spanish, so she was assigned to develop sales with Indiana’s Mexican bodegas.

With an overhaul of its regulatory system for fresh produce imminent, the Canadian marketplace soon will be undergoing more changes than at any time in the past 20 years.

At least that was the view of Fred Webber, chief executive officer and president of the Ottawa-based Dispute Resolution Corp., which can mediate produce sales conflicts among the North American Free Trade Agreement partners of Canada, the United States and Mexico.