Steve Peirce, founder of Avocado Marketing Services Inc. and for the last 11 years a consultant to the California Avocado Commission, died suddenly Wednesday, Nov. 22, of a heart attack at his home in Lake Elsinore, CA. He was 55 years old.

Park City Group Inc. in Park City, UT, a leading provider of inventory and labor optimization solutions for retailers, has announced that Earthbound Farm has joined its roster of customers. Earthbound Farm, a leading provider of organic produce and specialty salads, becomes Park City Group's newest Supply Chain Profit Link customer.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture has agreed to delay collection of new inspection fees for Canadian shipments coming across the U.S. border, but Canadian authorities are still pressing for the rule to be withdrawn.

PLANT CITY, FL -- The Florida Strawberry Growers Association announced that Charles F. (Chip) Hinton's employment as executive director of the association has been discontinued effective Nov. 30, 2006, and that an effort is currently underway to locate a qualified replacement.

In the interim, Erin Best, member services director for the association, has been named acting executive director.

PHILADELPHIA -- Pennsylvania Sen. Michael Stack was named the recipient of the annual Friend of Chile Award at a Nov. 16 luncheon at the Hyatt Hotel, here.

The luncheon was attended by nearly 200 industry members and was presented by the Chilean & American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia. The hotel ballroom appropriately overlooked the Delaware River, which last season received more than 60 percent of the fresh Chilean fruit exported to the United States.

Salinas, CA-based strawberry grower-shipper Blazer Wilkinson LP recently completed construction of a new 25,000-square-foot distribution center in Easton, MD, that will provide overnight shipping to customers up and down the Eastern Seaboard and as far west as Indiana.