While recent statistics showed relatively stable production in Michigan in recent years, shippers said that a very strong crop is at hand for the 2006 shipping year.

Oliver Wolfe, owner of Above All Produce Inc. in Benton Harbor, MI, said June 28, "The quality coming off the plant and also in the field looks very good right now. Quality is excellent. We will be harvesting in a little over a week and it is just beautiful." Already being harvested in late June were cucumbers, pickles, green beans and yellow squash.

In a segment to be aired nationally the week of Oct. 9, cable TV's Food Network pits two members of the nation's onion industry in not only a race against the clock but also against each other as they peeled pound after pound of colossals June 23.

Set in the theme-park city of Orlando, FL, the Fastest Foods Challenge brought Sherise Jones, marketing director for the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee, headquartered in Parma, ID, and Jeffrey Hall of National Onion Labs Inc., located in Collins, GA, together for a tear-jerking showdown of peeling prowess.

Village Farms in Eatontown, NJ, one of North America's larger producers and marketers of greenhouse vegetables, has announced that an agreement has been reached for the acquisition of Hot House Growers, one of the larger growers in Vancouver, BC.

The acquisition offers Village Farms the opportunity to improve distribution dynamics, expand product availability and increase brand awareness for its customers in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

IRWINDALE, CA -- Ready Pac announced July 7 the resignation of Larry Kern, who was president and chief executive officer. Mr. Kern has elected to pursue early retirement from the company. Dennis Gertmenian, Ready Pac's founder and chairman of the board, and Jack Davis, chairman of the executive committee, will assume Mr. Kern's responsibilities.

After a long battle with cancer, Otto Robert (Bob) Matousek, who was a member of the produce industry for about 30 years and who was most recently with Cobbtown, GA-based Plantation Sweets for three years, died July 1 at the Ogeechee Area Hospice Inpatient Facility.

Born Oct. 10, 1952, in Homestead, FL, Mr. Matousek resided with his wife of 20 years, Betty Browder Matousek, in Statesboro, GA. He earned his bachelor's degree from Florida Technical University in Orlando in 1974 and his master's degree in science in management from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL, in 1976.

RIVERHEAD, NY -- The sales staff at Fresh from the Start LLC is gearing up to do what it does best: provide the highest quality Maine broccoli to its retail and foodservice customers.

Now in its 11th year, Fresh from the Start, a division of ADS Management LLC, based here, expects to begin shipping broccoli July 17 from its longtime grower in Caribou, ME.