BRIGHTON, CO — With 67 years of farming under his belt, Bob Sakata has seen weather conditions range hit the extremes. This year, he said, Colorado is coming off the “lowest snowpack in history,” and growers remain in the throes of drought.

But at his office in Brighton, the well-respected founder of Sakata Farms said better conditions last fall and good farming practices this year are allowing both the onion crop and the sweet corn to do well.

“West Pak Avocado will be proudly exhibiting at booth number 99” at the Produce Marketing Association Foodservice Conference & Exposition in Monterey, CA, July 20-22, said Doug Meyer, vice president of sales and marketing for the Temecula, CA-based company. “I will be joined by the director of business development, Dan Acevedo, and salesman Jaime Ramirez.”

Salinas Valley lettuce shippers were experiencing inconsistent demand from day to day. Leaf shippers were seeing continued good demand from areas of the nation that normally rely on regional growing areas during the summer season. Westside melon shippers were seeing fairly good demand.

WEATHER

Daytime temperatures in Saliinas, CA, were expected to range in the upper 60s through July 31 with overnight lows in the mid-50s. Patchy morning and evening fog was predicted through July 29.

Yakima, WA-based Borton & Sons hired MILES MURPHY as director of food safety in the beginning of April.

Mr. Murphy is responsible for managing SQF and GlobalGAP programs for the company’s orchards in order to make sure they are complaint.

“It’s been a big learning experience,” Mr. Murphy said. “I’m enjoying getting to learn about the agriculture business.”

Before joining the team at Borton & Sons, Mr. Murphy worked at Ecolab Inc. for a year and a half. He is a graduate of the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA.

MONTEREY, CA -- Rosalyn (Roz) Mallet, chair of the National Restaurant Association and chief executive officer of PhaseNext Hospitality in Plano, TX, joined Produce Marketing Association President and Chief Executive Officer Bryan Silbermann July 21 at the opening session of the PMA Foodservice Conference, here, to talk about the commonalities between the two organizations' objectives as they work to increase produce consumption in the foodservice sector.

Stemilt Growers presented Washington Apple Education Foundation with a check for $12,000, which was raised during the fourth annual Thomas K. Mathison Memorial Golf Tournament, which was held May 17 in Wenatchee, WA.

WAEF is the charitable organization for the Washington tree fruit industry, which oversees more than 150 scholarships each year, including the Thomas K. Mathison Memorial scholarship.