One day several years ago, as she and her father sat talking, Jessica Peri posed a question. "I asked him what he was going to do when he retired," Ms. Peri recounted. "And he said he'd probably sell the company. It scared me -- I didn't want that to happen." At the time, she was a sophomore at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, majoring in marketing. And with deep-rooted family pride, loyalty and determination factoring into her career decision, Jessica knew without a doubt the third-generation onion farm, Peri & Sons in Yerington, NV, was where she wanted to be. "All my projects during

PHILADELPHIA -- Early maturity and Brix for Spanish clementines are better than normal, according to Bill Weyland, director of imports for Seald Sweet International LLC in Vero Beach, FL. The pre-Thanksgiving clementine varieties were developing internally at a faster rate than in 2005. With another shipload of clementines arriving in early December at Philadelphia's Tioga Marine Fruit Terminal, the citrus continued to look very good. By about Dec. 18, Mr. Weyland said, Seald Sweet was planning to be offering the retail trade two- and three-pound bags of "Seald Sweet" brand Spanish clementines

Most major players in the southern Texas produce industry are almost by definition importers of Mexican product. "I do not know of a major [Rio Grande Valley] Texas shipper that isn't working both sides of the border," said John McClung, president of the Texas Produce Association. In fact, Mr. McClung said that the opening of the U.S. market to Mexican avocados several years ago has tipped the scales toward imports when measuring the volume of imported vs. domestic product being shipped from south Texas on an annual basis. "We were getting pretty close to 50 percent anyway and the Mexican

Before the current National Football League season got underway, who would have predicted that the 2005 Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers would have compiled such a losing record thus far this year? Hard to believe, isn't it? It's amazing how professional sports teams can be so highly victorious one year and fall flat on their backs the next. It's a whole lot easier becoming number one than it is to remain number one. The produce industry is a lot like any sport. Every company works hard to build a winning team and reach a top recognizable spot in the industry. But what lies ahead after

This year's Chilean Hass avocado season is in full swing with a crop expected to provide the retail community with a consistent supply of fruit supported by an aggressive communications campaign. Between 265 million and 290 million pounds of Hass avocados will be shipped to the United States from Chile this season. Because the timing of the crop shifted later this year, more fruit than expected will be available toward the end of the season, providing a strong handoff from Chilean to California- grown fruit in late winter 2007. The Chilean crop will provide a larger percentage of medium and

VISALIA, CA -- Some 400 peach, plum and nectarine growers and shippers who gathered here for the California Tree Fruit Agreement's annual dinner bid farewell to Blair Richardson, who is stepping down after five years at the organization's helm, and welcomed the new president, Sheri Mierau, who has been serving as vice president of marketing. Melvin Enns, president of Enns Packing Co. Inc. in Dinuba, CA, and chairman of the CTFA executive committee, praised the accomplishments of Mr. Richardson during his tenure and spoke highly of the new president's qualifications to carry on with the