Most Texas citrus packinghouses were in production by the middle of October, and volume of oranges and grapefruit from the Lone Star State was starting to increase.

"We started oranges yesterday and started grapefruit one day last week," Mike Martin, president of Rio Queen Citrus Inc. in Mission, TX, said Oct. 20. "We are about a week later than last year just like everyone else. I think just about all the sheds are operating now or will be opening up in the next couple of days."

IRVINE, CA -- With baseball in post-season and both professional and college football in full swing, the Hass Avocado Board is implementing a game-day entertaining marketing campaign that encourages consumers to further incorporate Hass avocados into their game-day meals.

The effort aims to increase avocado sales during the fall time frame, when there is a strong supply of Hass avocados from multiple countries in the marketplace.

FOREST PARK, GA -- Often called "the world's largest roadside fruit and vegetable stand," the Atlanta State Farmers Market is actually a sprawling 150-acre hub of commerce and transportation so busy that it has its own supermarket, restaurant, visitors center, gift shop and police force.

When John Pandos packed up his bags and left Boston for the Rio Grande Valley four years ago, it was on the proverbial "wing and a prayer," he admitted.

"My cousins thought I was nuts," he said of the executives at Peter Condakes Co. Inc. in Boston, where he previously worked and has a family connection. "But I was coming down here and buying tomatoes from Texas [for Condakes] during their short two-month deal, and I saw an opportunity."

Persistent rain in parts of the South has hampered sweet potato harvesting in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas, with growers in those states as of Oct. 9 seeing 20-30 percent of their harvest complete compared to 50-70 percent by this time in a normal year.

Researchers, members of the fresh fruit industry and governmental officials have created a task force whose focus is to take proactive measures to stave off the impact of the newest pest found in Oregon and Washington.

Bruce Pokarney, director of communications for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, said that drosophila suzukii - commonly known as the vinegar fruit fly - reared its head this past September in the Willamette Valley.