BOGOT?, COLOMBIA -- South America's largest agricultural exhibition, XVII Agroexpo Corferias 2009, which opened here July 16 and was scheduled to run through July 26, targeted Colombia's various agricultural production entities and was expected to draw more than 300,000 people. At Bolivia's booth was F?lix Herrera, president of Asociaci?n de Productores Ecol?gicos Primero Aroma, or APEPA, which is based in Catavi in southern Bolivia. Mr. Herrera said that APEPA involves 650 families from 20 communities surrounding Catavi. The group is primarily focused on the production of 150 varieties of

Richard Leibowitz is looking forward to the Produce Marketing Association's Foodservice Conference & Exposition. Mr. Leibowitz, managing director of the newly formed Specialty Potato Alliance, based in Mountainside, NJ, told The Produce News that the organization will use the conference to introduce its products and its founding members, who are comprised of North America's premier growers and distributors of specialty potatoes. The alliance's founders -- comprised of two growers, a broker and a distributor -- are excited about meeting new customers, he said, adding that its initial focus will

Agricultural producers in northeast Colorado weathered a powerful thunderstorm that slammed into the suburbs of Denver Monday, July 20. It has been unusually wet in Colorado this year, and monsoon-like thunderstorms have spawned tornados and put residents on high alert since May. Alan Kinoshita, sales manager for Fagerberg Produce in Eaton, CO, said that the company was gearing up for onion clipping when the storm struck Monday morning. "We got close to two inches of rain," he told The Produce News. "The onions will be fine. It will set clipping back a few days." Fortunately, the crop did not

Using fresh U.S. pears as their inspiration, and competition to be the best among their peers as motivation, three U.S. culinary students were chosen as finalists in the Pear Bureau Northwest's first U.S. student culinary competition. All three students prepared their creations for a panel of judges in an American Idol-style presentation at the Western Culinary Institute in Portland, OR. Nicole Mau, a student at South Seattle Community College in Seattle, took top honors, winning a scholarship prize of $2,500 with her Red Anjou pear frite, a creative composition of lightly fried rice pudding

The Pear Bureau Northwest, headquartered in Milwaukie, OR, has teamed with breakout artists Honor Society to promoted U.S. pears during the band's 2009 tour. Honor Society, which hails from New Jersey, has a MySpace following of over 40,000 friends and over 2.5 million plays of their songs on the band's profile. In a musical coup, Honor Society -- which is touring 19 different cities this year during its Full Moon Crazy Tour -- also will be warming up teen audiences in North America for the Jonas Brothers, the wildly popular teen rock band hitting the road on its 2009 world tour. The Pear

Produce Marketing Association's 2009 Foodservice Conference & Exposition, the only conference dedicated to produce and foodservice, heats up July 24- 27 with a new daylong food-safety session and the release of a new study that will help the produce industry, foodservice distributors and restaurants break down barriers to offering more produce on menus. The popular annual conference in California is expected to attract some 1,500 attendees this year and is currently sold out for exhibitors. "We fill Monterey to capacity," Julia Stewart, PMA's public relations director, told The Produce News