The Fresh Produce Association of the Americas held its annual membership meeting on May 6 in Nogales, AZ. This year’s meeting had several significant highlights: Walter Ram, vice president for food safety of The Giumarra Cos., received the FPAA Member of the Year Award; eight distributor board directors and two associate board directors were elected by the membership; Matt Mandel of SunFed stepped into his role as chairman of the FPAA; and Gonzalo Avila of Malena Produce Inc. was elected chairman-elect.

Sales Manager Marc Marchini of J. Marchini Farms in Le Grand, CA, wears the fig marketing hat for his firm and likes the distinction.

“It’s a fun item to be a part of it,” he said. “It’s sexy to be a fig shipper. Everyone remembers the tree their grandfather had in the backyard.”

For J. Marchini, fresh figs are a limited time niche item that the firm got involved in about a decade ago when it bought an adjacent ranch that had fig trees on it. “We were going to tear them out and put almonds on the land, but we decided to sell them and have done pretty well.”

Alan Pollard, chief executive officer of Pipfruit New Zealand, said he expects total pipfruit production to come in at 308,078 tons in 2014. "This represents a reduction of 16,358 tons or 5 percent from the 2013 season," he told The Produce News. Production acreage has remained virtually unchanged between the two seasons.

Market Fresh, based in Nixa, MO, announced the addition of Nick Corbett to its Florida sales staff.

In his new role as general manager, Corbett will be responsible for managing all aspects of the company’s re-pack facility in Florida, including working with the corporate leadership team to set and carry out goals and objectives.

Because the Coachella Valley grape deal usually gets under way around May 15, grape supplies for the Memorial Day pull, especially for East Coast buyers, are usually few and far between.

“Not this year,” said Rob Spinelli, who sits on the sales desk at Anthony Vineyards Inc., which is headquartered in Bakersfield, CA, but has grape production in the Coachella Valley as well as the San Joaquin Valley.

Stanton, Jordon, Robert, Ken, Kirk, Steve, and Kevin Holthouse.The Ohio Proud program, “is huge for us,” said Kirk Holthouse, sales manager of Holthouse Farms of Ohio Inc., based in Willard, OH.