Numerous wildfires throughout a wide area of Southern California but primarily in various locations of northern San Diego County were raging out of control Tuesday Morning, Oct. 23. The fires had already damaged and, in some instances, devastated numerous avocado groves in various growing areas over the previous couple of days, and additional acreage was threatened as dry conditions and fierce Santa Ana winds continued to spread the fires more rapidly than firefighting crews could contain them. Details were hard to come by, and the situation was changing literally minute by minute at this

HOUSTON -- Sunkist Inc. has entered the premium juice category with the launch of "Sunkist Naturals," a line of nutrient-rich smoothie beverages that was introduced at the Produce Marketing Association Fresh Summit, here. The product line will be available in eight flavors in two sizes: a single-serve 15.2-ounce version as well as a one-liter size. Both sizes come in an attractive, sleek bottle, which lists the nutritional benefits. For example, Berry Cherry Bountiful is touted as being high in antioxidants and vitamins A, C and E. The other flavors and their nutritional values are Berry Blue

HOUSTON -- A flourishing Chilean blueberry export trade received an additional shot in the arm last season when grower-exporters volunteered to contribute an additional $100,000 beyond their check-off agreement toward the North American public relations effort by the Chilean Fresh Fruit Association. This helped move a 34 percent increase in Chilean blueberry exports last season. Tom Tjerandsen, managing director of the association, said that Argentine blueberry exporters have volunteered to throw in an additional $100,000 for this season's North American blueberry promotion. Exporters in

Divine Ripe, a Hidalgo, TX-based distributor of tomatoes, will ship product year round, according to Marco Jiminez, president of the company. Mr. Jiminez, who began his career 11 years ago with his family's company, Bonanza, started Divine Ripe after splitting from Bonanza two years ago. He has since built his volume and uses "four or five big growers and some smaller growers" in various regions of Mexico. "I now have year-round supply on our own box," said Mr. Jiminez. "We have both round and Roma, with the majority (80 percent) being Romas." Currently, the firm provides two grades of product

ORADELL, NJ -- The Produce News has added a number of new features to its web site, including a Buyer's Watch column with full and specific commodity information via a direct link to Pro*Act. In addition, visitors to www.theproducenews.com are now able to view full photo pages of industry events taken from current pages of The Produce News. Like all articles on the site, these photo pages will be archived so that visitors may view them at any time. To accommodate the larger computer screens to which most people have upgraded since theproducenews.com was launched back in 2000, the viewing image

HOUSTON -- A variety of fresh-cut items and promotions were on display at the Del Monte Fresh Produce Co. booth during the PMA Fresh Summit, here. Dionysios (Dennis) Christou, vice president of North American marketing for Coral Gables, FL-based Del Monte Fresh, said that "a whole range of fresh- cut produce," including grab-and-go convenience items and new products in the delicatessen and foodservice categories, are part of Del Monte offerings. Del Monte's general promotion theme is "Eat Fresh, Live Fresh." This "supports consumers' changing lifestyles and encourages them to take care of