The Produce Marketing Association is partnering with the Food Marketing Institute, the International Foodservice Distributors Association and GS1-US to implement a four-month pilot program among select buyers and sellers to gauge the impact of utilizing the Global Trade Item Number to improve supply chain efficiency and profitability.

A rash of extraordinarily wet weather in June from New York south through the mid-Atlantic region has caused spotty crop conditions and uncertain supplies are predicted through the balance of the summer, which is when many of those states typically enjoy a surge in interest from consumers looking for locally grown products.

Driscoll Strawberry Associates Inc. in Watsonville, CA, announced that Brian McElroy has joined its management team as organic business manager. Mr. McElroy comes to Driscoll from California Certified Organic Farmers, where he held the position of certification services manager for the last 12 years.

While recent statistics showed relatively stable production in Michigan in recent years, shippers said that a very strong crop is at hand for the 2006 shipping year.

Oliver Wolfe, owner of Above All Produce Inc. in Benton Harbor, MI, said June 28, "The quality coming off the plant and also in the field looks very good right now. Quality is excellent. We will be harvesting in a little over a week and it is just beautiful." Already being harvested in late June were cucumbers, pickles, green beans and yellow squash.

In a segment to be aired nationally the week of Oct. 9, cable TV's Food Network pits two members of the nation's onion industry in not only a race against the clock but also against each other as they peeled pound after pound of colossals June 23.

Set in the theme-park city of Orlando, FL, the Fastest Foods Challenge brought Sherise Jones, marketing director for the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee, headquartered in Parma, ID, and Jeffrey Hall of National Onion Labs Inc., located in Collins, GA, together for a tear-jerking showdown of peeling prowess.

Village Farms in Eatontown, NJ, one of North America's larger producers and marketers of greenhouse vegetables, has announced that an agreement has been reached for the acquisition of Hot House Growers, one of the larger growers in Vancouver, BC.

The acquisition offers Village Farms the opportunity to improve distribution dynamics, expand product availability and increase brand awareness for its customers in the United States, Canada and Mexico.