The Washington State Potato Commission continues to fund a number of projects that help promote the value of potato consumption for consumers and professionals alike. The commission's potato-related material is promoted through school programs, recipe booklets and posters, industry brochures, and related publications. Assistant Executive Director Karen Bonaudi said that the commission's marketing committee continues to look at funding a number of projects. "We have some programs we like a lot," she told The Produce News. The "Kids Are Growing" greenhouse grant program continues to be wildly

GLOUCESTER CITY, NJ -- By the end of 2007, the Western Cape Citrus Producers Forum, based in Citrus Dal, South Africa, hopes to be more actively involved in promoting South African citrus in the United States. Piet Smit, managing director of the forum, met with The Produce News July 24 at the organization's office at the Gloucester Marine Terminal LLC, here, to outline the future of his organization. Mr. Smit noted that South Africa is the 11th largest citrus producer and trails only Spain and the United States as the leading citrus exporter. Thus, South Africa is the Southern Hemisphere's

Sage Fruit Co. has struck a deal with Larson Fruit Co. in Selah, WA, to become its exclusive marketing and sales agent, beginning with new-crop apples in 2007. "We are very excited to have a new partner the caliber of Larson Fruit join our team," Chuck Sinks, president of sales and marketing for Sage Fruit, said in a press release. "They have excellent quality and grow all varieties of apples. I have seen the quality of box that they deliver to the marketplace, and it will complement our current warehouses." Larson Fruit has been growing apples for generations and has an excellent reputation

The California Department of Food & Agriculture issued a pest exclusion advisory July 18 that reversed its policy of excluding from the state commercial shipments of Mexican avocados containing armored scales, a pest that is of considerable concern to California avocado growers. The advisory, addressed to inspectors and county agricultural commissioners, stated that "effective immediately, inspectors should no longer reject commercial shipments of produce for consumption due to the presence of armored scales (Diaspididae). This change in policy is the result of an updated pest risk analysis

Although a poorly written press release seemingly states otherwise, the California Department of Public Health said that its warning against eating fresh ginger from China is limited only to specific lot numbers sold by Christopher Ranch of Gilroy, CA, between July 10 and July 26. Inspectors from the California Department of Pesticide Regulations found trace residues of the pesticide aldicarb sulfoxide July 28 during a routine inspection of Chinese ginger at an Albertsons supermarket warehouse. By the next night, Christopher Ranch, which sold the product to Albertsons, had identified the

W. Newell & Co., part of the Supervalu group, held its second annual expo July 24-25 in Indianapolis. In attendance were nearly 450 of the firm's customers. The two-day event featured Harold Lloyd as the keynote speaker. His topic was "Merchandising magic and putting that 'Super back in your market," as well as his seven research revelations, or as he calls them, pearls. There were also several workshops available to attendees, including Field to Fork with Blair Richardson from the PPN Association of California; Focus on Fresh Trends presented by Christine Walsh, who is the director of