Food Lion has made significant investments in 169 stores in North Carolina and South Carolina and created 500 new jobs. Key markets include Greenville and Wilmington, NC, as well as Columbia, Charleston and Myrtle Beach, SC.

Though parts of the state are drier than normal, Florida is in good shape as its fall and winter vegetable and citrus programs ramp up this month.

The steady rise in offshore avocado production has allowed Henry Avocado to enjoy a similar climb in numbers with its customer base. From the 2007 levels of 970 million to the present, Phil Henry, president of Henry Avocado, calculates the combined imports from Mexico, Chile and Peru have increased at the rate of 10 percent per year.

In February, with the 2013 California avocado season just getting under way, Robert (Bob) Lucy, president of Del Rey Avocado Inc. in Fallbrook, CA, told The Produce News that organic avocados have become “a very big part of our business.” That is true not just with California avocados but with imported product the company handles as well.

With the 2013-14 Mexican avocado season now under way, Lucy said Oct. 14 that Del Rey Avocado is building its organic volume out of Mexico. “One of the things we are really working hard on is expanding our Mexican program,” he said.

In January 2012, Texas officials found the first confirmed case of huanglongbing — HLB or greening disease — in a grove near San Juan, TX. In October, a second case was confirmed in nearby Mission, TX.

The second discovery is not cause for alarm and in fact in some ways can be seen as a victory. While greening has decimated the Asian and Brazilian citrus industries and has destroyed thousands of trees in Florida, a coordinated approach to spraying for the psyllid that spreads the disease has kept it at bay to date in Texas.

The Kroger Co. contributed $3.2 million to the USO in 2013.The funds were raised through the company's Honoring Our Heroes sales event in May and customer contributions collected at check stands through the summer and fall.