RIO RICO, AZ — Late this year, Grower Alliance, LLC, will add a winter watermelon deal, which will run from December 2014 until mid-March 2015.

“It’s something not a lot of people do,” said Jorge (George) Quintero, Jr., the firm’s managing partner. “There is less consumption in the winter, but there is less production, so the markets are high.” The wintertime fruit will come from Jalisco and Colima, Mexico. “You can grow north of there, but the quality won’t be that good,” he said.

Commerce City, CO — Anticipating some changes in the sweet corn market due to water shortages in the West, Ringer & Son Brokerage Inc. in Colorado expects its Olathe-area sweet corn deal to be up slightly this summer.

Ringer President Joshua Johnson said planting was to commence April 17, and harvest should begin July 8-12. The season is expected to run through Sept. 7, he added.

Answering retail, Mountain Fresh LLC owner Mike Ahlberg and his sons Zach and Seth will grow more bi-colored and yellow and less white this year, Johnson said.

Providing the best quality product and ensuring the safety of the food supply are the two main points that Richard Ruiz focuses on when running his business.

But the president of Ruiz Sales in Edinburg, TX, believes the responsibility needs to be shared throughout the supply chain.

"As an industry, we need to look at the overall bottom line, and the reason we are in business, and that is providing a product that is healthy, flavorful and, most important, safe," said Ruiz. "Anything less and we are failing the consumer, and not only that, we are cheating them."

In mid-April, the f.o.b. price on limes was marching to new heights, but Ronnie Cohen, vice president of sales at Vision Import Group LLC, in River Edge, NJ, told The Produce News that he expected the price to start to decline in May and drop to about $30 per carton in June, which would still be an above average market price.

Tex Mex Sales, based in Weslaco, TX, is a family owned and operated company dedicated to growing, packing, and delivering the best quality sweet and regular onions to its customers on a year-round basis.

Run by the father and son team of Marvin and Michael Davies, the firm uses its trademarked “OnionCare” system to deliver the best possible onions to its customers.

The firm was founded by Marvin Davis, who started in the produce business in 1961, and soon became a chain store buyer for Topco. In 1968, he left Topco and established his own company.

It was quite an undertaking when Crescent Fruit & Vegetable, LLC, opened its doors two years ago in Edinburg, TX, deep in the Rio Grande Valley in the most southern area of the state.

At the time, David DeBerry and his wife, Suzanne, were operating the facility as the onion and watermelon headquarters for the Borders Melon Co. The owners of Frontera Produce bought the facility a year earlier and established Crescent Fruit & Vegetable LLC as a separate entity on Jan. 1, 2012. David DeBerry was hired as general manager and Suzanne DeBerry is the firm’s controller.