The Pear Bureau Northwest has released its 2014 season Northwest fresh pear crop estimate. “With reports of a crop of excellent quality from the Pacific Northwest growing regions of Wenatchee and Yakima, WA, and Mid-Columbia and Medford in Oregon, the total projection is showing approximately 18.7 million standard 44-pound box equivalents (or 411,400 tons) of pears for the fresh market,” the Pear Bureau said on June 5. “This estimate is 6 percent smaller than the five-year average, and 13 percent smaller than last year’s record crop.”

With a shorter crop this year than in 2013, the California avocado industry anticipated an earlier finish to the shipping season, with heavy volumes well into August but declining the latter part of August and only moderate availability thereafter.

Due to the lighter supplies and the earlier finish, the California Avocado Commission will not carry its promotional activities as late into the season this year as it did in 2013. But those efforts will continue through Labor Day.

During the just-concluded 2013-14 season, the total volume of Mexican avocados in the U.S. market was 1.13 billion pounds — a little higher than originally estimated — and represented 65.5 percent of the aggregate avocado volume in the United Sates during that period, according to a written statement provided to The Produce News by Alvaro Luque, president of Avocados from Mexico Inc. That volume represents just over one-third of Mexico’s total avocado production, which is also consumed domestically and exported to other countries such as Japan and Canada.

With the 2014 Chilean avocado season approaching, the Chilean Avocado Importers Association will be providing strong market support to drive avocado purchases at retail, according to Karen Brux, marketing director for CAI.

“Avocados from Chile are available throughout the fall and winter and into the early part of spring,” said Brux in a written statement to The Produce News. “We expect to see some small volumes enter the market in mid-late September, with promotable volumes available by late October.”  

This summer, the Peruvian Avocado Commission launched its first multi-faceted marketing program, including a national summer radio campaign, strategically designed to fulfill retailers' needs and drive consumer purchase.

When Tater Tots began arriving in grocery stores in 1954, they quickly caught on as a snack food, a side dish and the foundation for casseroles at dinner tables across America.