MONT-TREMBLANT, QC -- Sobeys Inc., Canada's second-largest supermarket chain, recently went through a major shakeup in its produce division, both nationally and in Ontario.

Joseph Sbrocchi, Sobeys' national senior director of produce procurement, tendered his resignation Aug. 20, while two key staffers in its Ontario division, Stephen Rodrigues, its vice president of merchandising and replenishment for produce, floral and bulk, and Brian McDonald, its director of produce operations in Ontario, were let go within an hour of each other on Aug. 22.

In Mexico, Hurricane Dean dealt a sizable blow to limes, but its effects on other crops appear to be negligible or non-existent.

J.B. Cutsinger, who oversees the lime program for Burlingame, CA-based Splendid Products LLC, said that Splendid's limes, grown in Veracruz on Mexico's eastern border, took "a good hit" from the storm.

"It takes a few days to assess the damage," Mr. Cutsinger said. "I guarantee that at least 50 percent of the crop was damaged." Splendid grows limes year round in the Veracruz area.

CHICAGO -- While a few states will produce more apples in the 2007 harvest than in the previous year, the vast majority will produce fewer apples, and the 2007 national U.S. apple crop could be down as much as 10 percent from the previous year, according to estimates released by the U.S. Apple Association.

"By historical standards, the 2007 U.S. apple crop is a light crop," USApple Vice President James R. Cranney Jr. told those attending the association's Apple Crop Outlook & Marketing Conference, held Aug. 23-24 at the Four Seasons Hotel, here.

MONT-TREMBLANT, QC -- For the first time in its 60-year history, the Quebec Produce Marketing Association has a female president, Bernadette Hamel, who also serves as the senior director of produce purchasing and merchandising in the province of Quebec for Metro Inc.

Ms. Hamel took over as president Aug. 25 when she ceremoniously received the gavel from the association's outgoing president, Michel Levac, at the closing banquet here at the Fairmount Tremblant.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's efforts to stymie the merger of Whole Foods Markets Inc. and Wild Oats Markets Inc. were thwarted in late August when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denied the FTC's request for a stay to delay the closing of the deal.

The Vidalia Onion Committee, based in Vidalia, GA, has selected 10 winning produce managers from U.S. supermarket retail companies in its Sweet Rewards Merchandising Display Contest, which was held from May 1 through June 8.