Wada Farms Marketing Group LLC in Idaho Falls, ID, and Farm Fresh Direct LLC in Monte Vista, CO, have announced the formation of a new joint venture marketing organization called Category Partners LLC. The announcement was made in a jointly issued written statement April 7. According to the statement, the new entity is designed to better enable these two major potato suppliers to support the changing needs of retailers, foodservice operators, wholesalers and, equally important, today's new consumer. "We will continue to operate our businesses and sales offices as separate entities, but we are

PEBBLE BEACH, CA -- More than 3,000 aficionados of fine wine and gourmet food attended the inaugural four-day Pebble Beach Food & Wine festival that ran here March 27-30. Ticket purchasers sampled wares at the Lexus Grand Tasting held both Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Purveyors of wine and food were at the festival by invitation only. The festival was heavily weighted toward wine, with some 250 wineries represented and some 70 sommeliers and 10 master sommeliers in attendance. There also were 53 chefs on hand. Representing the fresh produce industry were three Salinas, CA, area companies

Eight months after a Category 5 hurricane devastated its papaya groves in Belize, Brooks Tropicals is gearing up for the return of the fruit to its product line. "Brooks Tropicals is very close to making a big splash back into the market with Caribbean Red papayas," said Mary Ostlund, director of marketing for the Homestead, FL-based major tropical fruit grower and shipper. "Our papaya groves in Belize were badly damaged by Hurricane Dean's winds and rain last summer, and since August, papayas from there have been out of the market. But we have been working volumes back up, and we're ready to

Imagination Farms is continuing its mission to increase children's consumption of fresh produce by taking its message and "Disney" brand fresh produce program to consumers in Mexico. "Mexico is a very attractive market for Disney and for our program. We are excited to be working with one of the strongest brands in the world to further our mission of increasing the consumption of fresh produce," Matthew Caito, chief executive officer of Indianapolis-based Imagination Farms, said in a press release. "Mexico was also a natural extension for us due to the fact that many of our current suppliers

A Monterey County Superior Court judge has denied a motion filed by Natural Selection Foods that contends that a statute of limitations exists in the case of a Carmel Valley, CA, woman who claims to have been wronged by the company over her rare, heirloom apple tree. Priscilla Higuera's lawsuit against Natural Selection Foods and its manager, Mark Marino, allege conversion of personal property for profit and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Natural Selection has admitted to trespassing, cutting clippings from Ms. Higuera's tree and planting its own apple orchard off those

After nearly two decades brokering Northwest produce through her own company, Pat McDonald has, if only temporarily, hung up that hat. Ms. McDonald launched Pacific Marketing International in the Yakima, WA, area 18 years ago and handled a wide variety of items, with a focus on Washington asparagus. In early March Ms. McDonald sold PMI to Rasmussen & Sons, one of the brokerage's two primary asparagus growers. Greg Rasmussen and his wife, Joel, are now sole owners of the farming operation, and the sales and marketing arm has been reorganized as Rasmussen Marketing. As she adjusted to the