The 2009 California avocado season will be hitting full stride just in time for this year's Cinco de Mayo festivities, and the California Avocado Commission has put together a creative promotion plan to encourage avocado consumption around the May 5 celebration. Celebrity chefs, mouth-watering avocado recipes, public relations efforts and extensive on-line outreach will position California avocados top of mind for consumers. "This year's avocado consumption forecast for Cinco de Mayo festivities exceeds even February's big game, with just over 51 million pounds of avocados expected to be

California Giant Berry Farms has all the bases loaded going into the United Fresh convention. Cindy Jewell, director of marketing, said that conventioneers would have a chance to learn more about the "Sweet Lineup Sweepstakes," launched April 1 and running through May 31. "The timing [of the convention] is perfect because we're coming into peak berry season," Ms. Jewell told The Produce News. California Giant, headquartered in Watsonville, CA, is a volume producer of fresh conventional and organic strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. Visitors to booth No. 2208 will have an

BRADENTON, FL -- The 10th annual Sunripe Golf Classic, held April 18 at the Legacy Golf Club, here, saw continued strong support from the produce industry, raising $80,000 to endow a scholarship program at the University of South Florida that benefits the children of migrant farmworkers. To date, the Sunripe Golf Classic, held each year at this Arnold Palmer signature golf course, has raised close to $1.2 million for the Sunripe Migrant Scholarship Fund. The tournament is fully underwritten by the Esformes, Heller and Collier families, principals in Pacific Tomato Growers, Pacific Triple E

Let me be the first to echo what the iconic sign at the end of Las Vegas Boulevard has said for years: "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas!" The 2009 United Fresh convention and expo promises to be the best yet. We look forward to a house packed with attendees fully immersed in new technologies, innovations and solutions that will revolutionize the produce industry. Over the next week, United Fresh will address and explore anything and everything that affects your produce business -- from the latest products to the newest techniques to the most pressing policies on Capitol Hill. With specialized

Doug Meyer, vice president of sales and marketing for West Pak Avocado Inc. in Temecula, CA, told The Produce News April 9 that he is looking forward to attending the United Fresh Produce Association convention April 21-25 in Las Vegas, NV, because of all of the "wonderful seminars and workshops" that are going to take place. "I will be there with my sales team for the convention, and we are very much looking forward to attending all of the workshops" and in particular the Global Conference on Food Safety Standards, he said. In addition, "we are very interested to get in and take a look at the

SunnyRidge Farm, based in Winter Haven, FL, has entered into a partnership with Leduc Blueberries LLC, based in Paw Paw, MI. The firms will be working together to promote high-quality Michigan blueberries to a wide range of valued customers. The new partnership will be called BlueberryRidge LLC and will be packing under the "SunnyRidge Farm" label. BlueberryRidge LLC will be operating from a state-of-the-art packing, pre- cooling and cold storage facility located in Paw Paw. The partnership will provide SunnyRidge Farm customers with the quality blueberries and custom packs that their stores