A short nine months ago, the Vidalia, GA, onion industry was looking trouble square in the eye. Torrential rains in December washed away plantings. Abnormally cold weather followed in January and February. March was too cool and too rainy. Growers wondered if the season could be salvaged.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets, the European-owned small-format retail chain making a splash in the West, has expanded a program that promises consumers farm-fresh produce in the store within 24 hours of its harvest.

Brendan Wonnacott, communications director for the Tesco-owned operation that is based in Southern California, told The Produce News, "We launched the program quietly last year because, as you can imagine, it's a hard thing to pull off."

MONTEREY, CA -- At the Produce Marketing Association's Foodservice Conference & Exposition, here, in July 2009, PMA President Bryan Silbermann announced a new collaborative initiative among three industry associations with the objective of doubling produce consumption in foodservice over the next decade.

The new South Carolina State Farmers Market & Agribusiness Center will open in phases beginning Aug. 16, Hugh Weathers, commissioner of agriculture, announced July 14. The market is located on Highway 321 in Lexington County.

The first phase will include the South Carolina Department of Agriculture's laboratory and consumer services facility, farmers sheds and administration building. That opening will coincide with the opening of private wholesale companies V.B. Hook & Co. Inc., Senn Brothers Inc. and Supersod Inc.

As a key expansion component at Al Harrison Co. in Nogales, AZ, on July 23, Thomas (T.J.) Bauer became the vice president of the company.

Mr. Bauer was previously the director of the Nogales office of L&M Cos. Inc., which is based in Raleigh, NC.

With the fading of July, both plum and nectarine production from California should remain fairly steady, so the firm prices that have accompanied the deals for most of the season should prevail.

Dale Janzen, director of industry relations for the California Tree Fruit Agreement, said that the significant acreage removal of stone fruits in California's San Joaquin Valley following the 2008 season "have turned the late-season [volume] peaks into foothills. Looking at the upcoming varieties, I don’t see anything but steady supplies. We’ve gotten through the July crunch."