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["Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Stephen, and a good researcher you are.  When I tried googling for information about prunes I learned that 70% of the entire worlds crop of prunes (dried plums) come from a relatively small area not far from you.  I'm guessing this has to mean the vast majority of the crop is dried, though I couldn't confirm it, so why wouldn't they just refer them all as prunes? 

 

The USDA consistently refers to prunes as "prunes (dried plums)"- just like that, with the parenthesis.  UC Davis is also absolutely consistent in the fact sheets I found in this definition.  My computer is a dinosaur so it would probably take me a lot of time to find the word used as you do but I found hundreds of instances where the definition of a prune is a dried plum.  I'm guessing that your region is unusual in the prune as fresh plum usage but considering how many prunes are grown there they're certainly entitled to call them anything they want.