Brooks Tropicals, the largest producer of Florida avocados, has begun picking fruit and said that there will be ample promotional opportunities once the peak shipping season begins later this summer. "It will be a big year overall for the 'SlimCado' avocado," Mary Ostlund, marketing director for Brooks Tropicals LLC, based in Homestead, FL, told The Produce News. With all of the media attention to the healthy fat in avocados, consumer demand is strong and growing. But people are also learning how to make the best of the 70 grams of fat per day limit recommended by doctors. The SlimCado

L&M Cos. Inc., based in Raleigh, NC, is recalling one lot of whole cantaloupes because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. No illnesses have been reported to date, and the company said that it is working with the Food & Drug Aministration to inform consumers of this recall. The whole cantaloupes were sold between May 10 and May 15 in Walmart Supercenter Stores in North Carolina and South Carolina, and in a Walmart Supercenter Store in South Hill, VA. The recall comes after a cantaloupe at a small farm from which L&M Cos. sources product tested positive for Salmonella. L&M

Minneapolis-based Target Corp. has announced that it will expand its fresh foods offerings, including produce, in about 100 of its 1,700 stores by the end of this calendar year. Target spokesperson Jill Hornbacher said that in 2008, the giant retailer test- marketed the expanded grocery concept in two stores near its Minnesota headquarters. The test proved successful enough to expand it to include eight other stores in various geographic locations. Ms. Hornbacher said that the expansion to 100 additional stores goes beyond the testing concept. She said that the company expects this new idea to

IMMOKALEE, FL -- One grandfather was a rancher. Another, as well as two uncles, owned citrus groves. His mother worked for Lykes Bros. There was little doubt that Doug Miller would wind up in the family business. "I was always on a tractor with my granddaddies, and I enjoyed it. Those were some of the happiest times of my life. It wasn't that I had to do it -- I liked it," Doug Miller recalled from his office at the Six L's Packing Co.'s potato- shipping facility, here. "I thought about law enforcement for a little while" growing up in tiny Lorida, FL (near Sebring), Mr. Miller, 28, said. "And

"When you get up to 15 inches of rain in a one-week period, you will have water standing in lower places of the pecan groves," said Charles M. (Buddy) Leger, chairman of the Georgia Pecan Commission in Atlanta. "This is a particularly bad scenario when it happens before the trees are budded out, which was the case when the heavy rains hit Georgia in April." One of the bigger challenges such a weather event can have is that standing water prevents machinery from getting into the pecan groves to spray fertilizer for disease prevention. As foliage starts to come out, spraying is imperative in

Conditions could not be better for this year's pipfruit crop from New Zealand. Peter Beaven, chief executive of Pipfruit New Zealand, is enthusiastic about this year's prospects. "The quality of the fruit is the best this decade: clean finish, good pressures and high Brix. The fruit is eating very well and compares very favorably with other Southern Hemisphere quality," he told The Produce News in early May. "This was an excellent growing season in all parts of New Zealand. [There were] no adverse weather events." New Zealand exports apples and pears annually to 60 countries around the globe