The California Table Grape Commission, based in Fresno, is actively involved in a variety of trade-oriented promotional activities and consumer communications efforts throughout the California grape season. Those programs were launched in May announcing the start of the season, and they continue through the peak production periods of late summer and fall, extending even past the end of the year.

A documentary film seeking to present the relationships formed via social media as legitimate and powerful in the daily lives of consumers received support from the produce industry as footage was shot on location Aug. 14 in the Salinas Valley.

The film, Follow Friday, is by filmmaker Erin Faulk, who set out on an 8,000-mile, 28-day journey across the United States to seek out and speak with experts in the field of social media and discuss the way online interactions are changing how businesses and consumers communicate.

The summer grape season California’s San Joaquin Valley was going very well in all varieties as of Aug. 10, and showed all indications of continuing to do so, according to Jim Llano, sales manager at Castle Rock Vineyards in Richgrove, CA.

“We are pleased with the quality” of the grapes and also with the timing of the different varieties, he said.

Looking ahead, “overall we are pleased with the fall crop,” Mr. Llano said. “Everything may be a little bit earlier. However, we are pleased with the overall timing and separation between varieties.”

Eight youth soccer players from across the country have been selected as the 2012 Summer Citrus Soccer Star award winners.

The young players are from diverse backgrounds and different parts of the country, yet all share a love of soccer, a spirit of leadership and determination on and off the soccer field, and have demonstrated commitment to their teams, families and communities.

The award was established by the South Africa Western Cape Citrus Producers Forum, a consortium of about 350 South African Citrus growers who export citrus to the United States.

The former Klamath Basin Fresh Direct has officially changed its name to Klamath Basin Fresh Organics. Chairman Dan Chin said the business is solely focused on organic production, and the name change makes that direction clear.

“We did some conventional potatoes in the past,” he told The Produce News July 30. “But we’re all organic now.”

For the first time since Crystal Valley got into the Peruvian asparagus deal almost two decades ago, the firm has experienced a gap in supplies from the South American country.

Rick Durkin, director of business development for Crystal Valley Foods in Miami said that the company is changing with the times and does have multiple asparagus sources to fill the needs of its customers.