The California Blueberry Commission is focusing on market access and offshore product movement. “This is the commission’s second year of operation and third growing season,” Executive Director Alex Ott told The Produce News on April 10.

Bill Litvin, regional sales manager for Temple, PA-based Giorgio Fresh Co., said that quick response codes continue to grow in popularity because they provide consumers with more in-depth information than what can be listed on packaging or point-of-sale materials.

“In addition, the information that a QR code links to can be updated frequently and is cost effective,” Mr. Litvin said.

While first-time visitors attending the cavernous and well-known Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in the California desert mid-April might have been fooled by the stormy weather, residents knew it was a mirage. High winds and rains had many different media outlets discussing the poor weather that accompanied the festival, but this year’s real story for the crops that originate from this desert oasis is the near-perfect growing conditions for the past several months.

At The Table Public Relations, formerly Sahlman Williams Public Relations & Marketing, has officially been renamed. The new name and logo/brandmark reflect the firm's nearly 30-year commitment to food-related public relations and marketing._

Homegrown Organic Farms in Porterville, CA, has “a full offering of stone fruit, starting with apricots, moving on to Pluots, peaches both white and yellow, nectarines, red plums, black plums and a few green plums,” said Stephen Paul, stone fruit category sales manager, who joined the company in October.

REEDLEY, CA — For Family Tree Farms Marketing LLC, here, the year 2012 “is going to be another year with more proprietary varieties coming out,” said Don Goforth, marketing director for the family-owned company that has built its reputation largely by focusing on fruit varieties that are “something special.”

This year, said Mr. Goforth, “I believe there are three brand new white nectarines coming out” as well as two or three new Plumcot varieties and two new Apriums.