The National Apple Month program announced the winners of the fall 2009 National Apple Month retail and military display contests. The annual contest, which jump starts the domestic apple industry's marketing season, provided retailers and the apple industry with increased sales and gave consumers easy access to great-tasting, good-for-you apples and partner products of Marzetti Caramel Apple Dips, Smucker’s natural peanut butter and JIF natural peanut butter. "The contest continues to deliver a promotional marketing event to kick-start the domestic apple industry’s marketing season and allows

After three decades in the fruit industry, Steve Terry, general sales manager at Chelan Fresh Marketing, has retired. According to a March 1 press release, Tom Riggan, former director of export sales and assistant sales manager, has been named to succeed Mr. Terry. Mr. Terry, who headed sales for the Chelan, WA-based company since 2005, is counted among those who launched the fruit marketing operation in August 2004. He told The Produce News that his entire career in the fruit industry was rewarding, but he said that being a part of Chelan Fresh's formative group was especially gratifying. The

TRAVER, CA -- It has been just two years since Scattaglia Growers & Shippers LLC was formed, and during those two years "we've been more successful than I had ever dreamed," said Louis Scattaglia, managing partner. "That is why we are heading down this path of expansion." The expansion to which he referred is a multi-faceted program consisting of new office construction, enhanced packing capability and the planting of additional fruit orchards and grape vineyards. Eventually, as needed, additional sales and sales support staff will also be added. The most visible manifestation of the expansion

EAST GRAND FORKS, MN -- The Northern Plains Potato Growers Association based in East Grand Forks, MN, has elected Gregg Halverson of Grand Forks, ND, as its new chairman. Mr. Halverson is president and chief executive officer of Grand Forks, ND- based Black Gold Farms, which raises potatoes on 15,000 acres located in 10 different states. Chuck Gunnerson, president of the association, said in a March 2 press release, "We are honored to have Gregg Halverson serving as chairman of the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association. His knowledge and experience will be a tremendous asset to the potato

WASHINGTON -- With the U.S. Senate yet to take up a food safety bill, the Produce Safety Project is hoping a new report that finds foodborne illness costs to be $152 billion annually, including $39 billion attributed to produce- related outbreaks, will get lawmakers' attention. The new study, Health-Related Costs from Foodborne Illness in the United States, attributes more than a quarter of the $152 billion total costs of foodborne illnesses to fresh, canned and processed produce. Written by Robert Scharff, a former Food & Drug Administration economist and current Ohio State University

With above normal precipitation in California this winter after three years of drought, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation made an announcement Feb. 26 that on its surface seemed to say that farmers on the West Side of California's San Joaquin Valley, who had their federal water deliveries slashed to almost nothing last year, could expect as much as 30-40 percent of their normal water this year. That announcement led to news headlines across the country proclaiming that relief was on its way for West Side farmers, who were forced to fallow hundreds of thousands of acres last year due to water cuts