Tree fruit industry veteran Keith Mathews, who is currently executive director of the Yakima Valley Growers-Shippers Association, was hired by FirstFruits of Washington at the beginning of October as its new chief executive officer. Mr. Mathews is currently wrapping up his official duties with the association, where he has worked a total of seven years during two separate stints - from 1989 to 1994 and again from 2007 to 2009. Mr. Mathews began his working career as a high school science teacher and got his first exposure to the tree fruit industry after joining his father-in- law's packing

California Citrus Mutual in Exeter, CA, a trade association representing growers who farm more than 200,000 combined acres of citrus, is involved in dealing with assorted issues of concern to its members. Chief among those, currently, according to Joel Nelsen, president, are controlling the invasion of the Asian citrus psyllid, which is a vector for a potentially devastating citrus disease, finding ways "to market a variety of citrus crops" in such a way that one does not cannibalize another, and mitigating the ever-increasing burden of taxes and government regulations that adversely affect

Sergio Chamberlain, formerly chief executive officer and sales manager of Meyer LLC in Nogales, AZ, left Meyer Sept. 22 after nearly eight years with the company to start his own produce business. It was something he said he has dreamed of doing since he got his first job as an on-ground buyer for a small company 20 years ago. Mr. Chamberlain's new company, called SCC Fresh LLC, is located in a facility on Old Tucson Road in Nogales that was formerly occupied by Greenpoint Distributing LLC. The facility includes offices and a warehouse area with what Mr. Chamberlain described as a "very nice

FOXBOROUGH, MA -- On Thursday, Oct. 15, Katie Pelczar of Dedham, MA, was announced the winner of Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc.'s tailgate cookoff held at Patriot Place Bog at Gillette Stadium, here. Ms. Pelczar was one of three finalists to compete for the title, "Unofficial Official Tailgate Recipe of the New England Patriots." The event was held at the cranberry bog display set up just outside Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots. Ms. Pelczar's winning entry consisted of grilled bacon apple bites with chunky cranberry spread. A Patriots fan and amateur chef, she won over the

CHELSEA, MA -- There is a nice feeling among metro Boston's produce distributors, an upbeat mood that business is good, if not great. There is a prevalent sense that there is opportunity for diligent businesses that hustle and are watchful of accounts receivable. Boston apparently has few produce problems that are exclusively Bostonian. Overall -- but not universally -- there is a concern about slow foodservice sales in New England. Business with foodservice purveyors is generally off, as is the case nationwide. Providing significant compensation for Boston's produce distributors are strong

Mexico, which is the largest producer of avocados for the U.S. market, expects to export 705 million pounds of Hass avocados to the United States between July 2009 and June 2010, according to projections from the Avocado Producers & Exporting Packers Association of Michoac?n, commonly known by its acronym APEAM. The first quarter of the crop year, from July through September, is the period of lightest volume. Projected volume for the period was 103 million pounds. "We just ended the first quarter, and we are on track with our projections, with 103,595,497 pounds shipped to the U.S. from July