The Mushroom Council hosted a tasting event and met with officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Aug. 21 to showcase a new concept of adding mushrooms to meat entrees.

The concept will expand the market for mushrooms with new uses in school meal programs, an untapped area for mushrooms, according to the council. Rather than replacing students' favorite foods, this "swapability" concept would develop meal options using mushrooms for a portion of the traditional protein component.  

GATINEAU, QC — Cultivating the Next Generation was the theme of QPMA’s 65th annual convention, held Aug. 16-18 at the Hilton Lac-Leamy, here, where attendees experienced a weekend of nonstop networking and activity.

Engaging the next generation and succession planning were key themes throughout all the seminars and presentations. A recent QPMA membership survey indicated that succession planning was a key concern for the membership.

You are a sales representative with a responsibility to sell a new company product to a retailer. The first step is setting up that challenging appointment. You would prefer to see the top decision-maker, but you realize that may not be possible.

You anxiously make a phone call, hoping to get a date and time approved.

“Pacific AgPak has been providing packaging options for its loyal customers for over 20 years,” said Dave Baum, president of Pacific AgPak in Watsonville, CA. “We have developed and mainstreamed a lot of different pack styles for strawberries. With the development of the first PET [Polyethylene terephthalate] one-pound clamshell, and the first club store four-pound clamshell, we have now turned our attention to our growers and retailers request in developing several new programs.”

Chinese garlic in the U.S. market has been a source of frustration for California garlic growers for a number of years, particularly when prices for Chinese garlic in the U.S. market has been below the cost of domestic production.

But Jim Provost, founder and managing partner of I Love Produce in Kelton, PA, which markets garlic from both China and California, as well as other producing areas, foresees a time when California garlic can be exported to China.