Texas onion growers were riding high in 2010. Demand was strong and market prices for the season averaged $20-$40 for a 40-pound box for sweets throughout the deal. In 2011, growers put more onions in the ground, bringing Lone Star State onion production to 13,064 acres.

McAllen, TX – The Rising Star Award was presented to Ed Bertaud, the Houston-based director of business development for the Pallet Management Division of IFCO Systems N.A. Inc., March 8 during the America Trades Produce Conference, here.

DOROTHY KOBOSKI, who has worked for Yakima, WA-based FirstFruits Marketing of Washington for about two-and-a-half years as a sales assistant, is one of the first to go through the company’s recently implemented sales intern program. She will spend most of the year in transitional training to understand all aspects of growing, packing, warehousing and selling before graduating into actual sales responsibility.

There are myriad trends and factors that influence fruit and vegetable consumption in the United States, including the changing ethnic makeup of the country, which bodes well for tropical fruits and vegetables as well as the of the produce industry as a whole.

A major packinghouse renovation was well under way at Del Rey Avocado Co. Inc. in Fallbrook, CA, and was within a few weeks of completion, when The Produce News talked to Robert (Bob) Lucy, the company’s president, Feb. 19.

“We have torn down a lot of the old coolers and have built one massive one,” Mr. Lucy said. Instead of having “the three little coolers that we had,” with the space “all chopped up,” those have been replaced with “one great big cooler that will almost double our storage space, which is just wonderful for us.”

Grimmway Farms, one of the world’s larger carrot producers and shippers, continues to expand its connection with the popular “The Biggest Loser” television show as a way to increase awareness for its own brand and to stress its healthy eating emphasis.