Rick Eastes, director of global sourcing for Sunkist Global LLC, has elected not to renew his agreement with the Sunkist subsidiary company beyond Nov. 30, and Mark Tompkins, produce industry veteran and former head of Sunkist's domestic sales network, is returning to replace him.

Mr. Eastes joined the newly created Sunkist Global as its first employee Feb. 1, 2004, with the charge of developing counter-seasonal and complementary citrus from sources outside the United States under the "Sunkist" brand.

WOODLAND, CA -- Timco Worldwide Inc. in Woodland, CA, announced Nov. 14 that it is voluntarily recalling its "Sundia" brand cantaloupe because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people and others with weakened immune systems.

"Every indication is that the Maine crop will be good this year," said Tim Hobbs, director of development and grower relations for the Maine Potato Board, headquartered in Presque Isle, ME. "Growers here always hold their breath that tropical storms and hurricanes won't come up the East Coast and aim in our direction, but we were fortunate this year to get through the season unscathed. We've had good growing conditions across the board, and the majority of the crop was harvested by November 1."

In a unanimous decision Oct. 30, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irvin was well within his rights to allow third-party flavor certification of Vidalia onions.

The suit, brought by Bland Farms and other Vidalia onion growers, sought to have the high court order the Georgia commissioner of agriculture to halt the use of "Certified Sweet" and "Certified Extra Sweet" trademarks in association with Vidalia onions.

The successful marketer, whether retailer or produce supplier, better start planning to reach consumers in new ways because traditional marketing avenues are losing their effectiveness.

Today's consumers are much different than consumers of years past, and hence they respond to different marketing techniques and they are congregating at different locations. While this general statement is true for all generations, it is especially true for younger consumers: in their teens, 20s or 30s.

Holland-based Royal Ahold NV has announced plans to sel its Columbia, MD- based U.S. Foodservice division, which it has successfully turned around from a revenue-losing entity in 2003 to a salient company, indicating that the move is part of a restructuring effort aimed at boosting shareholder value.

The announcement came in conjunction with Ahold's latest Retail Review report.