Consolidation, branding, consistency, consumer-friendly packaging and globalization - Market Fresh Produce LLC, based in the Kansas City suburb of Lee's Summit, MO, is integrating all these benefits for sweet onion buyers.

Steve Phipps, principal owner and director of sales and marketing for Market Fresh Produce, said, "Our focus on this onion program is to come to market with a consistent trade brand of sweet onions to where the retailer could embrace the packaging."

The move toward full adoption of radio frequency identification technology has encountered many hurdles along the way. But some seem just a bit too high to clear, especially for the produce industry.

Probably the biggest hurdle is that radio frequency signals have trouble penetrating liquid. In technology-speak, cartons of fresh produce present a "harsh environment" that result in RFID readings that are less accurate than are typically recorded when RFID chips are used on hard goods or non-liquid grocery items, such as soap or cereal.

For AnnMarie O'Malley, her position as a buyer for Co-op Partners, a wholesale warehouse in St. Paul, MN, that deals mostly in organics, is in itself organic -- an integral part of the whole.

Ms. O'Malley, 26, graduated from the University of Wisconsin- Superior in 2003 with degrees in art and social work. While acknowledging her studies might appear unrelated to her chosen career path, that isn't really the case, she said, "because the business I work for is organics, and its practices are very ethically responsible."

Traceability, a hot issue in the produce industry, made for an appropriate topic for the Canadian Produce Marketing Association's first ever webinar held June 13.

Utilizing the purchasing power it has gained from representing over 30 percent of the U.S. watermelon supply, Sundia Corp. has signed an agreement with Weyerhaeuser on behalf of Sundia's grower-partners.

Inclement weather has delayed the start of this year's West Side melon deal in California, and production will be slightly off that of 2005, according to those involved with the deal.

J.D. Allen, assistant manager of the Cantaloupe Advisory Board, said that this year's estimate on the West Side melon deal is 20 million cartons of cantaloupes in 30- or 40-pound cartons, down from last year's production of 22.2 million cartons.