The New York Apple Association in Fishers, NY, announced that its 2006 Defense Commissary Agency display contest was an overwhelming success. With a total of 20 entries, it was the second-highest participation in the seven-year history of the program. Four winning displays were chosen, with awards going to Patrick AFB Commissary in Patrick, FL; Fort Gillem Commissary in Forest Park, GA; Fort Rucker Commissary in Fort Rucker, AL; and Fort Drum Commissary in Fort Drum, NY. "Over the years, we've worked closely with commissaries to encourage them to promote New York apples," David McClurg, vice

A sticker that could tell whether an apple is ripe in the orchard and packinghouse is being tested this fall and could be marketed as early as next year. Mark Riley, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at the University of Arizona, teamed with Arizona psychologist Robert Klein years ago to develop a new device they hope is different from other technologies that have proven to be expensive or time-consuming in measuring fruit ripeness. The marker, created by the fledgling company RediRipe, detects ethylene gas - the chemical released during ripening - and turns the

Sundia Corp., based in San Francisco, announced that its Original Watermelon Juice and watermelon juice blends are now found in the produce sections of over 2,000 retail stores nationwide, exceeding the company's expectations. The watermelon marketer and juice company picked up retail distribution in New England and the Midwest the third week of July. Retailers carrying Sundia juices now include Whole Foods, Randall's, A&P, Shaw's, Albertson's, Wal-Mart, HEB and Tom Thumb. Sundia Original Watermelon Juice was first announced last September, with the watermelon juice blends being added in March

MONTEREY, CA -- Technological innovations will play a key role in improving the taste of fresh produce and in marshaling produce through the supply chain, according to two University of California- Davis professors who spoke during the recent Produce Marketing Association Foodservice Conference & Expo, here. James Thompson, a professor in the school's biological and agricultural engineering department, and Michael Reid, a professor in the school's department of plant sciences, presented a foreshadowing into the future during a workshop held at the PMA conference. Some innovations the two

CEDARVILLE, NJ -- In Mike Maxwell's view, the produce world is like a relay race. The president of Procacci Bros. Sales/Garden State Farms in Philadelphia elaborated by saying that each segment of the produce industry focuses on carrying the baton for its segment of the race. But within the industry, the various players tend not to know a great deal about what happens before they receive the baton, or what happens with their valuable produce after they let it go. Within this line of thought, store-level retail produce managers handle and merchandise fresh produce for a living, but most have

Salinas, CA-based D'Arrigo Bros. of California is looking to unload its cooler facility in nearby Castroville for a cool $9.8 million. The company soon will no longer have a need for the cooler since it expects to start shipping product out of its new 100,000-square- foot cooler in nearby Spreckels, CA, around Aug. 15. The cooler is part of a 219,000-square-foot facility that also will allow the company to consolidate operations by housing cooling, shipping, business and administrative operations all under one roof. The company anticipates opening offices on the Spreckels property by next