Demand for Hass avocados in the United States has more than doubled over the last seven years and now stands at around 1 billion pounds annually. Most of that volume comes from three sources: California, Mexico and Chile. A year ago, California avocados were hit hard by a freeze, which reduced an already smaller crop than the previous year's bumper harvest. As a result, the 2007 California shipping season ended early. In July, the Chilean avocado industry was hit hard by a freeze, which has resulted in reduced export volume to the United States during the fall and winter. Last fall, firestorms

The board of managers at Sun World International LLC, which is headquartered in Bakersfield, CA, has named Allen Vangelos, who is a member of the company's board of managers, "to the additional positions of president and chief executive officer on an interim basis." He will oversee all company operations. The announcement was made in a Jan. 18 company press release. In a telephone interview Jan. 22 with The Produce News, Chris Parker, Sun World's chairman of the board and an employee of Black Diamond Capital Management, which owns Sun World, said, "Allen is an extremely capable, competitive

Grant Oswalt, a senior sales representative at Salinas, CA-based Coastline, died Friday evening, Jan. 11, after a brief illness. Mr. Oswalt spent some 25 years in the fresh produce industry, having joined the Coastline sales team in October 2005, where he was a senior sales representative. Mr. Oswalt came to Coastline from produce broker Fresh Network in Salinas. Prior to that, he had been a sales manager at Duda's California operations, Salyer American Fresh Foods Inc., Capurro Farms and Apio Inc., all in California. Phil Adrian of Coastline described Mr. Grant as "a good friend who was well

Deal-making was his game, and now the citrus industry is likely to be his fame. When 29-year-old Patrick Norris was interviewed by David Mixon, chief marketing officer, and Mayda Sotomayor, chief executive officer, of Seald Sweet, headquartered in Vero Beach, FL, they expressed enthusiasm over the prospect of welcoming into the industry a young person who did not have experience in the produce industry. "I did have experience in deal-making, however," said Mr. Norris, now sales manager at Seald Sweet. "My previous position was land acquisition agent for Indian River County Real Estate

Dole Fresh Fruit and Dole Fresh Vegetables, subsidiaries of Dole Food Co. Inc., announced enhancements to their marketing operations. Yvonne Rentmeester has been promoted to the position of marketing services manager for Dole Fresh Fruit. In this position, Ms. Rentmeester will expand her role currently managing the technical services department to encompass banana ripening and product handling from warehouse all the way through the retail store. She will assume direct responsibility for Dole Fresh Fruit's marketing representatives and the merchandising program. Ms. Rentmeester began her career

As the U.S. presidential primary races continue, one of the debate topics has been "change." The candidates are being challenged with questions about change. But how will any changes influence business, especially the food industry? What will happen in produce? Do growers, shippers and retailers have any idea of what lies ahead? Is change expected to have an impact on today's management, or will it be business as usual? A year from now, some companies will be looking back at 2008 and wondering why they didn't see certain challenges coming at them with those changes. Many will be spinning their