Stoneridge Orchards, an expert in dried fruit and the consumer brand of Royal Ridge Fruits, has made a variety of its most popular products available in smaller, single-serving packages.

The new three-ounce bags are intended for retailers to merchandise as healthy, on-the-go snack options, and the company is making them available in eye-catching tray displays. The bags also can be hung from pegs in the snack aisles of convenience stores and other retailers.

Jose Rossignoli, category manager for Robinson Fresh, said avocado sales continue to be strong at the retail level. “Avocados continue to experience strong growth and are one of the top sales drivers in the produce category,” he told The Produce News.

Cherries have made the Oppenheimer Group's list of top items to promote over the upcoming holiday season, joining the traditional favorites Ocean Spray fresh cranberries and Japanese mandarins.

With their festive red color and resemblance to holiday ornaments, winter cherries just might become a new tradition for many.

Import cherries are more plentiful than ever, according to Evan Myers, Oppy's executive category director of South American imports, who noted that the increased cherry plantings in Chile and Argentina could mean the tradition is here to stay.

In September of 2013, Houweling's Tomatoes was among a group of top produce suppliers invited by Whole Foods Market to hear firsthand the retailer's plan to launch a "Responsibly Grown" rating system. Taking cues from similar programs implemented in their meat, fish, beauty and other departments, the grocer laid out the framework for what was recently launched.

After completing the assessment process, Houweling's Tomatoes Camarillo farm earned a "Best" rating for its tomatoes.

Ag Against Hunger coordinates an annual fundraiser called the "New York Express" every October, and this year a truckload of donated Iceberg lettuce, celery and cauliflower from Salinas, CA, was sold at Hunt's Point in New York City, raising $14,034 for the Salinas-based non-profit.

When Vineland, NJ-based M. D’Ottavio Produce Inc. and Immokalee, FL-based Oakes Farms announced at the end of September that they would be working together for the 2014-15 Florida produce season, farming over 600 acres in Immokalee, they obviously could not predict the exact harvest dates of their first crops or how those crops would look.

Now they can.

Two of the principal executives in both companies provided exactly that information, and more, in exclusive interview Oct. 30 with The Produce News.