Coast Produce Co. in Los Angeles has hired Emily (Marlephansakul) Fragoso to be its new marketing manager.

She joins the Coast team after six years with the Fresh Produce & Floral Council, where she began as membership development director and event coordinator and rose through the ranks to become vice president and executive vice president.

Recently, I informally surveyed several conventional supermarket organic produce sections and found only a few feet of space devoted to the category. The number of items in those sections was skimpy and the variety lacking. Why aren't conventional supermarkets fully committed to this category yet?

Lee Frankel has taken the chief executive officer position of the United Potato Growers of America and resigned a similar post with the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, where he served for 12 years.

Back in February, Deardorff Family Farms announced the introduction of a first-of-its-kind recyclable box for shipping celery. But it was only in September that the company was able to ramp up production of the box, according to Tom Deardorff II, president of Oxnard, CA-based Deardorff Family Farms.

The box provides all the benefits of traditional wax-saturated boxes with the added advantage of recyclability, and the response from customers has been positive.

A 10-15 percent drop in overall cranberry volume may translate to a very limited supply of fresh cranberries for the remainder of the holiday season. While the quality and the color of the fruit have both been good, the size has been smaller than normal, industry experts said.

The Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services' Fresh from Florida campaign took center stage in New York City's Times Square Nov. 18. New Yorkers and visitors alike received a virtual "taste" of oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, tropical fruits, bell peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, sweet corn, strawberries and squash during video spots that ran from Nov. 18 through Dec. 1, a time period that included the Nov. 22 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Holiday wreaths and trees in the video spots were decorated with the fresh produce items.