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CHICAGO — Produce companies are competing for scarce talent in a tight economy, and that is translating to more generous benefits and higher compensation compared with a few years ago.

Almost 1,000 agriculture groups and companies are urging Congress to ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, including dozens of specialty crop groups.

The New York Apple Association, Fishers, has received the Telly Award for a television commercial featuring the state’s apple growers.

Russ Hanlin, who has been with Sunkist Growers Inc. since 1978, plans to retire as president and CEO Oct. 31, and Jim Phillips, president of Porterville Citrus, will succeed him.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has placed sanctions on four companies for failing to pay Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act rewards.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has determined that D2 Doll Partnership and Kris and Jim Langley were not “responsibly connected” to Chef’d LLC.

Chelsea, Mass.-based Morning Kiss Organic — which has expanded its program with organic kiwis and pears, available year-round — will exhibit at the Organic Produce Summit July 10-11 in Monterey, Calif.

California blueberries grown under the T&G Orchard Rd brand are being sent to Vietnam for the first time.

Field to Market recently announced it is now able to integrate sustainability metrics and algorithms of its Fieldprint Platform with several leading precision ag and farm management software programs. This represents one of several moves the group hopes will help meet its ambitious goal of 50 million participating acres by 2020.

The Texas Farms and Ranch Lands Conservation Program, created by the legislature in 2005, was meant to play a vital role in protecting agricultural lands, which are disappearing as a result of the recent population boom. A 2014 Texas A&M study found that the state was losing farm and ranch land at a faster rate than anywhere else in the country.