SAN DIEGO — A clear majority of 10 supermarket produce managers participating at a workshop during the recent United Fresh Produce Association convention claimed to have quite a bit of autonomy when it comes to building displays, featuring local product and sampling product for customers.

The group was representing mostly smaller chains and they were in attendance because they were being honored as being outstanding managers.

While many Georgia watermelon growers were surprised by May rains that have delayed the deal until mid-June, Tom Glenos of Kid’s Choice Fresh Produce Inc. in Weston, FL, which grows and ships watermelon from several locations in Florida, Georgia, Arkansas and Michigan, pegged the state’s late start from the beginning.

While some Georgia growers are grappling with field conditions that have made harvesting nearly impossible, Glenos always planned to start his Peach State deal in the middle of the month.

Porterville, CA-based Homegrown Organic Farms announced the hire of BRIAN GUESS as regional grower and operations manager in Southern California.

Guess is a recent graduate of California State University-Fresno with a degree in agricultural business. Prior to joining Homegrown Organic Farms, he worked for Baloian Farms as a quality control manager, and most recently as vendor development manager for SoFresh Produce.

Sage Fruit. Co., headquartered in Yakima, WA, expects to have a highly promotable cherry crop from the Pacific Northwest in 2013. “Our cherry acreage has increased compared to last season,” President Chuck Sinks told The Produce News. “We have added more tonnage in our later districts. Sage Fruit continues to grow our cherry tonnage each season.”

VINELAND, NJ — How each new spring produce season begins in New Jersey depends on the weather during the previous winter and early-spring months. That’s just mother nature.

For example, the 2012 New Jersey spring produce season started earlier than in many, many decades, thanks to an unusually warm winter and early spring.

With a return to more normal temperatures during the most recent winter and early spring, the 2013 New Jersey spring produce season started with “fairly regular timing,” according to Skip Consalo, president at The Fresh Wave.

Freshness is the name of the game at PEAKfreshUSA, located in Lake Forest, CA.

The company and its partner, XPEDX, are working together to ensure that cherry growers in the Pacific Northwest can provide their own customers with packaging that extends product shelf life and guarantees freshness.