WASHINGTON — The timing could not be better for the United Fresh Produce Association's Washington Public Policy Conference. Congress will be making decisions on childhood nutrition and food safety bills when United Fresh holds its conference, here, Sept. 14-16.

The crunch of Jazz apples has been heard across the continent this summer, loudest of all in Dallas and Portland, OR.

Throughout August, street teams driving Jazz apple-themed sport-utility vehicles engaged with consumers at more than 60 events staged in retail outlets, parks and other venues.

As shoppers stocked up for the last picnics of the season and prepared to pack the first back-to-school lunches, Jazz apples proved an irresistible temptation, according to David Nelley, apple and pear category director for the Vancouver, BC-based Oppenheimer Group.

Florida Agriculture & Consumer Services Commissioner Charles H. Bronson announced Sept. 1 that eradication has been declared in the Mediterranean fruit fly outbreak in Palm Beach County.

Regulations have been lifted, and fruit movement is no longer prohibited. Eradication is achieved when three life cycles of the Medfly (approximately 60 days) have passed without finding another wild Medfly.

Delta, BC-based Houweling's Hot House Group has appointed Brian Beggs chief marketing officer and Craig Laker director of sales and marketing. Both men will join the organization effective Sept. 7.

Industry veteran David Hicks has joined Brooks, OR-based Curry & Co. to help the firm continue its onion business growth domestically and internationally.

Mr. Hicks, a New Mexico State University graduate, has worked for more than two decades in a number of different roles with grower-shipper-packers. Most recently, he was part of a team that helped design a new baby carrot packing facility on the East Coast, and he also assisted in recruiting growers for the new facility.

What a difference a week makes.

On Aug. 25, the cranberry industry expected supplies for the 2010 fresh cranberry crop to be in line with last year's harvest. However, after an Aug. 31 meeting of the Cranberry Marketing Committee in Wisconsin, those numbers have been revised, and supplies are expected to drop 20 percent from last year’s figures, which were approximately 333,000 barrels according to a July report issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.