It is a tall order, but the principals at AgriWorld Exchange believe their on- line trading platform will change the way the fresh fruit and vegetable industry does business.

They know this has been tried before -- and has failed fairly magnificently. But they say that times have changed and so has the industry.

Deliveries of New Zealand apple and pear varieties were already underway on both coasts in early May, and David Nelley, Oppenheimer's category director for pipfruit and pineapples, predicts a season of relatively short supply of fruit from the island nation overall compared to the past five years.

"Supplies are down considerably across the industry, but Oppenheimer will have strong volumes this year with category favorites like Royal Gala and Braeburn and rising stars like Jazz already in the market," he said.

The New York Apple Association in Fishers, NY, saw great success in the 2008 Defense Commissary Agency display contest, sponsored by the association and T. Marzetti Co.

"This contest has allowed our apples to be promoted, displayed in a big way and opened up new markets," David McClurg, vice president of marketing for the association, said in a press release.

The House of Representatives voted Wednesday, May 21, to override President Bush's veto of the farm bill, but a procedural mixup apparently made that vote meaningless, according to published reports.

CALGARY, AB -- It may have taken 83 years, but the Canadian Produce Marketing Association has its first woman in the position of chairman.

Charles Edwin Gilb, long known as Southern California's "potato king," died Sunday, May 18, at his home in Arcadia, CA, of malignant melanoma. He was 83.

Mr. Gilb was born Nov. 13, 1924, in Cincinnati, but soon moved with his parents and sister to Twin Falls, ID, where he spent most of his childhood and began his love affair with potatoes.