Officials from Peru estimate that the country’s 2013 Peruvian onion crop will increase by 10 percent when compared to 2012. The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics of the Regional Management of Agriculture of La Libertad announced on April 16 that volume is anticipated to be 40,000 tons of onions grown on more than 1,000 hectares of land.

According to Luis Díaz Vergara, this compares to a total volume in 2012 of 34,913 tons. The lion’s share of volume came from Viru, Ascope and Chepen, production provinces located in the country’s coastal region.

Valley Fruit & Produce, a full-line wholesaler-distributor of quality fresh fruits and vegetables based in Los Angeles, announced the promotion of Rick Paino to sales manager.

In his new position as sales manager, Paino will work with the Valley sales team to create strategies for accomplishing its sales goals, while continuing as commodity manager for the apple and pear division at Valley.

PBS Kids and Whole Foods Market have partnered to offer families tools to support healthy eating.

Designed to leverage the educational content of PBS Kids' and Whole Foods Market's commitment to nutrition, the partnership will provide families with free resources in Whole Foods Market locations across the country, as well as online.

The effort kicks off in September with a suite of materials from PEG + CAT, PBS Kids' newest series, which focuses on preschool math and problem-solving skills and will launch Oct. 7.

CHICAGO — The plush confines of Chicago's Ritz-Carlton Hotel set the tone for a highly professional and productive, yet very social, 2013 Apple Crop Outlook & Marketing Conference, held Aug. 22-23.

The Aug. 22 cocktail party gave the industry a chance to come together.

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Domex Superfresh Growers, a global leader in growing and marketing fresh apples, pears, cherries and apricots, announced the release of a new cherry media trend analysis.

Using a proprietary data analysis tool, the marketing department at Domex Superfresh Growers sorted through the complex media landscape and collected conversations around Rainer and dark sweet cherry varieties. The analysis captured all of the Twitter, Facebook, main news, blog, video and forum conversations around cherries from May 1 to July 31.

During my many road trips, I always make it a point to visit a number of supermarkets to browse through all of the departments, especially produce. My primary interest in perusing the stores is to examine the retail merchandising, since selling is the most important function of the entire operation.

As I walk throughout the stores, I have noticed a serious trend that is becoming more pronounced each and every day: The customer base is decreasing as shoppers scamper in all other directions for groceries.