PALM DESERT, CA -- More than 200 members of the California Women for Agriculture, farmers and supporters gathered at Palm Valley Country Club June 22 to honor Chuck Hodges, managing partner of Prime Time International, as Agriculturist of the Year.

Mr. Hodges, with partners Carl Sam Maggio and Mark Nickerson, merged marketing and farming companies to form Prime Time International in 1992. Prior to that, he was vice president of sales and marketing for Sun World before forming CH Sales in 1991.

Irwindale, CA-based Ready Pac Produce announced the hiring of three new senior-level executives to strengthen its sales team.

Garry Granger joined Ready Pac as senior vice president of foodservice sales, Stephen Bonaro came on board in the newly created position of division vice president of retail sales for the Central Region, and Alan Ediger is now vice president of retail sales for the Western Division.

They will report directly to Allan Sabatier, executive vice president of sales and marketing.

NEW YORK -- If I were rating my favorite ways to spend an afternoon, participating as a judge in a culinary contest consisting of recipes featuring fresh Florida tomatoes would be near the top of the list. And that's exactly what I had the privilege and pleasure of doing June 22 for the Florida Tomato Committee's "Fresh Florida Tomato Contest: 'Best of the Best' Culinary Student Recipes." The event was held at Lewis & Neale Inc. Strategic Food Communications, a public relations firm here.

The California Avocado Commission, based in Irvine, announced that record levels of avocado shipments occurred in May, with Cinco de Mayo and Memorial Day shipments reaching all-time highs. The record-breaking trend continued into June with the second week of June recording an all-time high one-week tally of avocado shipments of just over 22 million pounds.

With the mission to increase consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables among children, Indianapolis-based Imagination Farms has taken significant positive steps in that direction with two recently announced partnerships with prominent fruit producers.

In the first alliance, Imagination Farms joined with Ito Packing Inc. in Reedley, CA, to market stone fruit and blueberries under the "Disney Garden" brand. The items were the first fresh produce products to carry the brand.

If the grape crop in California's Arvin district, the earliest in the San Joaquin Valley, comes off in the way it appeared to be shaping up as of the second week of June, it will be a welcome relief to buyers who have struggled to secure promotable volumes during the Mexico and Coachella spring grape seasons.

The desert grape deals so far, out of both Mexico and Coachella, had been light on most varieties as well as late, making grape supplies short and prices steeper than usual at mid-season for the deals.