The Santa Maria, CA, area located in Santa Barbara County has plenty of advantages for produce growers, with its excellent ground and long growing season.

In recent years Salinas, CA-based Pacific International Marketing has been increasing its acreage in Santa Maria by 5-10 percent annually, said Melinda Richardson, PIM's director of marketing.

Supreme Cuts LLC in Mahwah, NJ, announced that Merle Axelrod has joined the firm as its president. Ms.

Axelrod will be overseeing the day-to-day operations of the company, which has grown into a leading processor and distributor of fresh, pre-cut vegetables for both the retail and foodservice markets.

After an eventful Chilean fruit season, importers are hoping for some stability as the deal winds down into the spring with apples and kiwifruit.

Early Chilean apple imports had been arriving in the Philadelphia area for two weeks when Ron Dandrea spoke to The Produce News March 19.

Mr. Dandrea, who is vice president of Dandrea Produce, based in Buena, NJ, said that his firm's Chilean apple volume this spring will be up about 20 percent from 2007, but buyers should expect "smaller sizing, at least on the front end of the deal."

FRESNO, CA -- The weather this past winter and early spring has been just about ideal to produce a strong and consistent bloom and a good set in cherry, apricot, peach, plum, nectarine and other stone fruit orchards in California's San Joaquin Valley, according to growers and shippers in the area. Barring any future weather problems, good-quality fruit and an orderly harvest with good volume are expected for the 2008 season.

Industry veteran Chris Elsie has launched a new grower-shipper operation called Pura Vida Farms, which is headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ, and will begin shipping melons in late April.

"We will eventually focus on a wide range of fruits and vegetables, but we are beginning this spring with a melon deal," he told The Produce News March 26.

In the 6th century B.C., a popular plant called lettuce was served to Peruvian kings. Today, this same lettuce has been nurtured into sophisticated packages of fresh-cut salad blends and displayed in produce departments.

When World War ll ended, big changes arrived with it. Many trends began to emerge in people's lifestyles, especially with eating habits. This post-war transition period was primarily triggered by the military service people who brought home various types of food experiences from foreign countries in which they had served.