Anticipating between 50 and 100 responses to its inaugural retail display announcement last fall, the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee began receiving inquiries and started sending fulfillment material to retailers in November. But as requests continued to come in, IEOOC Marketing Director Sherise Jones realized that the numbers were exceeding all expectations. "We didn't expect this kind of overwhelming response," Ms. Jones said in mid-January during Idaho-Eastern Oregon Spanish Sweet Onion Lover's Month. "Experts said 50 to 100 responses would be good. To date we've sent out upwards of

John Loughridge, a long-time executive with Del Monte Fresh Produce Inc., has joined Bunge Ltd. as vice president of food products for Latin America and the Caribbean. He will build a team to rapidly grow food sales from Bunge operating units in North America, Brazil and Argentina as well as to identify production and distribution investment opportunities in the region. Mr. Loughridge will work from Bunge's Coral Gables, FL, office. Bunge is an integrated, global agribusiness and food company operating in the farmer-to-consumer supply chain. It is among the larger oilseed processors and the

The Produce Marketing Association's Produce Solutions Conference, Consumer Trends '07, will be held March 22-24 in Charlotte, NC. The three- day conference is designed to give executives representing every segment of the supply chain the opportunity to focus on ways to target new consumer segments -- namely, moms, kids and the affluent. With moms spending more than $1.6 trillion, kids influencing $146 billion in spending and the affluent averaging $3.1 million in net worth, there is considerable wealth to be spent among these target markets in this year alone. "PMA reformulated this conference

Brooks Tropicals Inc. in Homestead, FL, announced the promotion of Jose E. Rossignoli to director of national sales. For the past two years, he had been an assistant to Neal (Pal) Brooks, president. Since joining the firm, Mr. Rossignoli has been involved in the planning of the firm's papaya operations in Belize as well as the "SlimCado" avocado operations in southern Florida. Additionally, he will be working with the retail and foodservice industries in the development of new and existing accounts to achieve higher visibility for Caribbean Sunrise and Caribbean Red papayas. With Mr

United Fresh Produce Association released the following letter Jan. 23 from Co-Chairmen Maureen Marshall and Mark Miller. None of us can deny that our fresh produce industry faces a different business world today than we did six months ago. We have all been impacted by the recent food safety issues in our industry. Each time any fruit or vegetable is implicated in a foodborne illness outbreak, we all suffer from lost consumer confidence in our industry as a whole. In the long run, this is simply not sustainable and certainly not acceptable. Over the past months, your board of directors and

Prime Produce International LLC announced a new retail and foodservice account manager and a new 40,000-square-foot packing and cold-storage facility in Orange, CA. PPI has named Michelle Spelman to the position of retail and foodservice account manager. Ms. Spelman has been employed in the avocado industry for over 15 years, most recently as marketing director at the California Avocado Commission. In this newly created position, Ms. Spelman will develop all retail and foodservice sales programs, including avocado promotions that will add value for Prime Produce customers. Gahl Crane, sales