HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL " FreshLook Marketing Group, a leading supplier of marketing research information to the perishables industry, announced that the California Tree Fruit Agreement in Reedley, CA, has renewed its contract and will continue to rely on FreshLook to provide detailed distribution, sales and pricing information on fresh peaches, plums and nectarines. Sheri Mireau, vice president of marketing for the CTFA, said, "We?ve been working with FreshLook for the past year and have decided to extend that relationship for another two years. The quality and usefulness of the information and

Los Alamitos, CA-based Frieda?s Inc. is bringing back its Waterbabies personal-sized watermelons. Exclusively from Frieda?s, Waterbabies are grown in Panama. The company introduced Waterbabies to the industry last April. The solid, bright-green, smooth-skin melons are round in shape and approximately eight inches in size. The melons are seedless and sweet with a high Brix content. Each melon is labeled with serving suggestions and a PLU number. Last year the melons sold well at retail. ?Consumers were so intrigued by its small size that demand exceeded supply," said Jackie Caplan Wiggins

LA MIRADA, CA " Food safety took center stage during an ambitious webcast co-hosted by the United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association and the Fresh Produce & Floral Council, bridging the 3,000-mile gap between the headquarters of the two organizations. The Feb. 2 bi-monthly membership luncheon meeting of the FPFC, held here at the Gateway Plaza Holiday Inn, provided a live audience for the webcast, which electronically brought together experts from various parts of the country. Although there were a couple of technological glitches, the webcast began with a news clip of the previous secretary

A fledgling growers? cooperative brought representation of more than 50 percent of the San Luis Valley?s potato acreage to its initial gathering Jan. 12, and the organization?s president said that by early February, he expected 70-75 percent of the acreage involved. The purpose of United Fresh Potato Growers of Colorado Inc., which is similar to co-ops formed in Idaho and Oregon, is to bring solidarity to the area?s growers, according to the organization?s president, Center, CO-area grower Dave Warsh. ?The first thing is to find out what the growers here want," Mr. Warsh said in late January.

There is little doubt that the Wal-Mart mandate " as it has been called " is the impetus that has propelled radio frequency identification technology into the limelight and produced significant development in the past year. There also seems to be general agreement that the use of RFID will offer unknown value in many different areas in the years to come, which is a very good thing because for the fresh produce industry, the value proposition as put forth by the Wal-Mart mandate isn?t evident. ?Certainly not at 40 cents a tag," said Gary Fleming, RFID expert for the Produce Marketing

Produce companies struggling to understand the kind of records they need to maintain under the bioterrorism law got an opportunity to ask top legal experts during a Jan. 26 teleconference sponsored by the International Fresh-cut Produce Association. The bioterrorism law requires food companies to keep records on their products and, for the first time, hands the Food & Drug Administration new powers to access what was largely shielded manufacturing and processing information from a wide variety of companies that handle food. FDA can demand to see any records if it has a reasonable belief that a