DEMAND

Russet shippers were experiencing continuing strong and rising demand on all packs and grades. Row crop shippers have seen persistent minimal demand since the holiday season. Northwest yellow and red onion shippers are seeing modestly improving demand.

TRANSPORTATION & FUEL

Trucks are plentiful in California and Arizona, but rising fuel costs are pushing freight rates higher.

Reminding retailers and consumers alike that pears are a fresh choice during the winter months, Pear Bureau Northwest is holding a nationwide display contest to encourage retailers to creatively promote U.S. pears.

Florida blueberry growers are hoping for a heyday this spring with an exclusive market window that should be even longer than usual because of an early end to the Chilean season and a freeze that wiped out more than half of Georgia's early season crop.

In 2010, Texas onion growers had a jaw-dropping market, fetching between $20 and $40 for a 40-pound box of product for an entire season. In 2011, onion acreage in the Lone Star State jumped by 20 percent as growers chased those same markets as before. The result was predictable: Too much product led to low market prices.

Food safety and doing business across international borders will be the primary focal points of the 2012 America Trades Produce conference, co-hosted by the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas and Texas Produce Association March 21-23 in Nogales, AZ.

The border town of Nogales is representative of the focus of the conference. A fence divides the city into two hemispheres that function as a single unit, the north in Arizona, the south in Sonora, Mexico. Millions of tons of produce cross the border each year, and both sides of the city rely on reciprocal trade for survival.