When Southern Roots, the Southeast Produce Council's new leadership program for women in produce, held its first organizational meeting in late September during the council's fall conference in Young Harris, GA, its leaders brainstormed to come up with a memorable and exciting inaugural event.

The Chilean Cherry Committee, an entity associated with the Chilean Fruit Exporters Association, expects total exports of fresh cherries from Chile to reach 100,000 tons this year. As the second-largest export market for Chile, North America anticipates a 45 percent increase in volume over the 2013/14 season.

To support this dramatic growth, the Chilean Cherry Committee is pursuing a targeted promotion campaign across the United States and Canada, with increased funding earmarked for retail promotions.

Monsoon rains just before harvest in 2012 and 2013 caused severe losses to the date crop at Hadley’s Date Gardens Inc. in Thermal, CA. If it had happened a third year in succession, “I don’t know if we would have made it out of that,” said Albert Keck, president. “We were down for the count.”

Mexican avocados are “very important” in the U.S. distribution network of McDaniel Fruit Co. in Fallbrook, CA, according to Rankin McDaniel Sr., president of the company.

“Perhaps 50 percent of our distribution requirements are going to be supplied out of Mexico during the 2014-15 season,” principally October through June, he said.

LAS VEGAS -- The day before Republicans took charge of the U.S. Senate and strengthened their hold in the House of Representatives, a pair of journalists discussed the immigration reform inaction that has been part of the U.S. political scene for the past generation.

If the two debaters are accurate, the shift in power will not have a major impact on comprehensive immigration reform, at least in the short run.

Grand Rapids, MI-based Meijer, a retailer that operates 213 supercenters and grocery stores through Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky, is now setting its sights on its next target — southeast Wisconsin.

As a pioneer in the "one-stop shopping" concept, Meijer will be taking its full-service stores into Wisconsin's highly competitive grocery market next summer by opening its first grocery/general merchandise supercenters in the region.