A new company has emerged in the temperature-monitoring business with an eye toward making a mark in an already- competitive U.S. marketplace.

Escort Data Loggers LLC, which was incorporated in January and is based in Redmond, WA, will handle U.S. sales, marketing and distribution of technology and products developed by Escort Data Systems LLC, an Auckland, New Zealand-based company founded in 1989 by Andrew Maskill.

Mushrooms are considered to be a perfect complement to many dishes, and with the recent signing of a supply agreement with Birds Eye Fresh, one major mushroom supplier will have a chance to prove that its product is the perfect complement to a national fresh produce brand.

Under an agreement signed Oct. 18, Cardile Bros. Mushroom Packaging Inc. in Avondale, PA, will supply fresh white and exotic mushrooms to be distributed nationwide under the "Birds Eye Fresh" label.

Highline Mushrooms, a leading independent family-owned grower-shipper of fresh mushrooms in Canada, with farms in Leamington and Wellington, ON, and distribution facilities in Montreal, was named Vendor of the Year by Meijer Supermarkets at its recent Perishable Vendor Summit in Grand Rapids, MI.

Tottori 20th Century pears from Japan are the latest item to be packed exclusively under the "Oppenheimer" brand.

The sweet, yellow-skinned pears are one of the more unusual items in the Vancouver, BC-based marketer's pipfruit repertoire. Grown with exacting care by growers in Japan's Tottori prefecture, the quality of these pears make them a perfect fit for the "Oppenheimer" brand, according to John Anderson, chairman, president and CEO of Oppenheimer.

After thrashing Cancun and Cozumel in Mexico Saturday, Oct. 22, Hurricane Wilma was heading toward southern Florida on a path that was expected to take it somewhere between the Florida Keys and Tampa.

Forcasting the tracks of hurricanes is extremely tricky, but as of Sunday afternoon, Oct. 23, the best estimates by weather forecasters have the category 2 storm coming ashore sometime in the early morning hours Monday, Oct. 24 in the vicinity of Naples, FL, then cutting through the state before exiting into the Atlantic Ocean and heading northward up the East Coast.

When a homeowner says to a newscaster that in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma, his favorite backyard tree now belongs to his neighbor (considering the "possession is nine-tenths of the law" theory), you know the news cannot be much better for Florida fruit and vegetable growers.