Los Angeles-based Sunrise Produce Co. recently named Lisa Andrea Marquez vice president of sales.

Marquez joined the Sunrise sales team in 2010, and one year later became the director of sales. In her new as vice president of sales, Marquez will lead the company in sales, channel sales, marketing and overall customer service organization.

From his Monte Vista-area office, David Tonso, general manager of RPE Colorado, said 2013’s San Luis Valley crop continues to ship in “steady volume and with good quality.”

Tonso, who took the GM position in July 2013, oversees RPE’s Colorado office at Hi-Land Potato Co., where spuds from Metz Potato Co. and Spud Seller are also packed and shipped.

“We’re seeing an annual volume of 2.5 million hundredweight, mostly russets,” he said, adding that the operation also ships reds, yellows and some colored specialty varieties.

“We fared OK through the storm in January,” Kevin Donovan, national sales manager for Phillips Mushroom Farms in Kennett Square, PA, told The Produce News. “We did not lose power, and our staff and our trucks were, for the most part, able to get to where they needed to be. We got some snow and cold temperatures, but it was a lot worse just north of us.”

Donovan was referring to the polar vortex that swept across North America in early January. The weather phenomenon blanketed the Northeast with record low temperatures.

The inaugural Southeast Produce Council Charity Golf Classic, benefiting the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, will be held June 18-19 at Chateau Elan in the beautiful mountains of Braselton, GA.

In an effort to better serve customers and business partners, Crowley Maritime Corp.'s Guatemala-based liner and logistics teams have moved into a new office space in the heart of Guatemala City, the country's bustling metropolis and most populous city in Central America.

Modeled after Crowley's Jacksonville, FL, headquarters, the office's open layout maximizes the workspace while promoting a collaborative environment and synergy between the two business units, which were previously housed in separate buildings.

Healthy roots are absolutely essential to orchids, according to the American Orchid Society. Without a substrate conducive to root establishment, growth and function, an orchid cannot absorb the nutrients and water it requires.

What are the properties of a suitable growing medium? It should be firm and yet well aerated. Having these two characteristics, such a medium can offer a foundation to which the roots can attach themselves, while at the same time allowing the aeration necessary for their proper function.