Sun Belle Inc. unveiled its colorful new logo and packaging at the Produce Marketing Association annual convention held recently in San Diego. New packaging on display included completely new labels and boxes for the company's berry line of raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and red currants, as well as new PLU and UPC stickers for its greenhouse-grown peppers and tomatoes.

An impressive group of retail and foodservice produce buyers have weighed in on the food-safety issue calling for specific Good Agricultural Practices to be in place for spinach by Dec. 15 and for other crops by Feb. 15, 2007.

PHILADELPHIA -- The annual preseason Chilean fruit meeting, held here Oct. 27, brought a number of revelations to the fruit import trade.

The annual meeting, which featured a workshop titled "Enhancement of Chilean Fresh Fruit Trade Operations," is presented by the Chilean & American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia. Roughly 150 people from the industry attended the meeting, which included speakers representing a variety of federal agencies, as well as ASOEX, the Chilean Exporters Association, which is based in Santiago.

SAN DIEGO -- Chile, which typically exports about 80 percent of its annual avocado crop to the United States and expects to do so again this year, has a record crop on the trees and expects to ship a record volume of avocados to the United States during the season which started in earnest in early October.

At a special teleconference meeting, the Western Growers Association board of directors voted to immediately initiate the California marketing agreement and marketing order process to establish mandatory Good Agricultural Practices for the lettuce and leafy greens industries. In addition, at the Oct. 26 meeting, the board voted to initiate a federal marketing order process to develop a comprehensive national spinach and leafy greens GAPs order.

With a nearly 100 percent increase in volume over 2005, the Zespri gold kiwifruit season from New Zealand is now wrapping up. But gold kiwifruit aficionados won't have to wait until next year to enjoy this tropical-sweet sensation. California gold kiwifruit will hit the market in early November, and for the first time ever, gold kiwifruit is now available in smoothie form as an ingredient in the Naked Juice Co.'s new Gold Machine.