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Hass Avocados from Mexico's state of Michoacan are now allowed year-round and in 16 additional states. US Customs and Border Protection officials said that the avocados can now be sold in all states except Florida, Hawaii, and California. Previous law limited the avocado shipments to 31 states and only between October 15th and April 15th. The change affects only commercial shipments. As before, travelers must remove seeds from any avocados they take into the US…

Scheid Vineyards Inc. has approved the construction of a new winery facility to be located at the Company's vineyard headquarters just off of US Highway 101 near Greenfield, California. The company said the completion of the first phase of the new facility will allow it to increase its crushing capacity to approximately 25,000 tons of grapes and will require an estimated investment of $18 to $20 million. In 2004, Scheid Vineyards processed over 6,000 tons of its own grapes into wine using third party winery facilities, both within and outside of Monterey County. Scheid Vineyards is an independent producer of premium wine grapes and operates approximately 5,600 acres of vineyards, primarily in Monterey County, California. The winery sells most of its grape production under short and long-term grape and bulk wine contracts to wineries producing high quality table wines, and also produces a small amount of ultra premium wine under its own label…

Tanox, Inc. (TNOX) has executed an agreement with Biogen Idec for the lease of a biologics manufacturing facility in San Diego and to acquire "certain manufacturing assets to expand the company's antibody production capacity." The transaction includes its manufacturing equipment with a 5,500-liter production capacity and assumption of a long-term lease on the 76,000-square- foot building housing the equipment. The facility was previously operated by Biogen Idec and served as a commercial bulk production facility for two monoclonal antibody therapeutic agents. Tanox expects to close the transaction by the end of this month. The building lease extends through October 2011 with 2 5-year extension options. While serving as a commercial bulk manufacturing site, the plant passed several inspections by United States and European regulatory agencies for marketed products. The facility will substantially increase Tanox's current manufacturing capacity and allow it to manufacture products for late-stage clinical trials. Tanox is a biotechnology company specializing in the development of biotherapeutics based on monoclonal antibody technology. The company develops therapeutic agents for the treatment of asthma, allergy, oncology, inflammation and infectious diseases…

California agricultural producers are being asked to participate in a survey to help provide economic indicators of state and national agriculture for producers, agribusiness and government. The Agricultural Resource Management Survey will be given throughout California to show the impact of the shifting global market, farmer production decisions and government policies on the agricultural economy, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). The survey is conducted annually in February and all of California's farms have a chance of selection. About 2,500 farms throughout the state were to participate in the survey selected using a probability random sample stratified by size and type of farm. Producers who are chosen to participate in the survey will be visited by an interviewer to complete the report at the farm or ranch operator's convenience, according to CDFA. The USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service will conduct the survey and publish the results in a series of reports on the current farm financial situation; and…

Natus Medical Inc. has signed of a new five-year marketing and distribution agreement with GN Otometrics, a subsidiary of GN Store Nord A/S of Denmark. The agreement calls for GN Otometrics to market and distribute Natus' newly acquired line of hearing screening devices from its recent acquisition of Fischer-Zoth Diagnosesysteme, GmbH. The product line will be marketed internationally under the AccuScreen brand name. In addition, GN Otometrics will distribute Natus' line of ALGO newborn hearing screeners in selected countries. Natus develops, manufactures, and markets products for the detection, treatment, monitoring, and tracking of common disorders in newborns. Headquartered in San Carlos, California, Natus markets and sells its products worldwide through a direct sales force in the US and the UK and through distributors in over 50 other countries.

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