VANCOUVER, BC -- Displaying a plethora of the fresh fruits and vegetables available from Mexican growers and exporters, the MexBest pavilion at the Canadian Produce Marketing Association's convention, here, was the largest in the show's 81-year history.

"They have progressively gotten bigger and bigger," said Ron Lemaire, executive vice president of the association. "They moved to the larger pavilion format three years ago with great success."

Growers, packers, processors and shippers of fresh and fresh-cut produce should be hearing the distant sound of drumming from the mighty jungle that is our nation's capital.

Stakeholders on the federal, state and local levels are anticipating major economic changes to the port of Quincy, WA, in 2006 with the possibility the port will be selected as a demonstration site for a new refrigerated railcar hub. In addition, technology giants Microsoft and Yahoo have each expressed interest in locating "server farms," or massive Internet server storage facilities, in Quincy.

Bob Nielsen, senior vice president, chief administrative officer and general counsel of Salinas, CA-based Tanimura & Antle, left the company April 15 after 14 years.

He has taken a position as executive vice president, general counsel and secretary with Monterey, CA-based Century Aluminum, a publicly owned, major aluminum producer.

WASHINGTON -- The agriculture industry will have to wait until the Senate returns to work April 24 to find out if lawmakers can pass comprehensive immigration reform and bring a viable and legal workforce.

But a wide variety of groups who rely on agricultural workers are not waiting for the vote. They are telling their members to call, write and visit members of Congress in their district offices during the two-week recess to send a clear message that reform must help agriculture -- an industry heavily dependent on an immigrant labor pool.

Volume is expected to be down sharply this year, compared to last year, on early-season Perlettes and to some extent on early Flame seedless and Sugraone grapes out of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Some attribute the expected decline to a lack of chill hours. But while early yields will be well below their potential and considerably below earlier expectations, that does not begin to tell the story for the Sonora grape deal as a whole.