As of mid-May, feedback from the Pacific Northwest pointed to an outstanding, if not record-setting, cherry crop. "We're seeing a curve similar to 2007," said James Michael, promotions director for the Washington State Fruit Commission and Northwest Cherries. "Everything looks good this year."

Two independent and significant transportation developments will be helping the distribution of South African citrus in the United States this summer.

These involve new contracts between the Western Cape Citrus Producers Forum and the reefer steamship line Seatrade, as well as an agreement with the rail service Railex. The Western Cape Citrus Producers Forum is the South African grower group that is the leading supplier of Southern Hemisphere citrus to the Uunited States.

The California Cut Flower Commission has launched a new transport project that it estimates will save 13-58 percent of the cost of shipping California flowers to buyers across the nation.

A third-party logistics firm, Total Logistics Control, founded in 1902 in Holland, MI, was chosen for the project at the commission's May 13 meeting, according to Kasey Cronquist, executive director and ambassador for the commission. Its selection culminated a 20-month process of developing the plan and interviewing firms to carry it out.

Just in time for cool salads, salsas, dips and spreads that are popular in summer, Brooks Tropicals LLC's "SlimCado" avocados are again in season.

The company began harvesting early varieties of the Florida-grown avocados in late May, with commercial volumes scheduled to be moving in mid-June. Bill Brindle, vice president of sales for Brooks Tropicals, which is headquartered in Homestead, FL, said that Florida avocado varieties are alternate-bearing from year to year, but not all varieties are in sync.

The early California cherry season has been characterized by good volumes of high-quality fruit and strong demand, both domestically and in export markets.

Customers "are pretty much taking [the cherries] as fast as we can pack them," Maurice (Mo) Cameron, managing partner of Flavor Tree Fruit Co. LLC in Hanford, CA, which markets fruit for Warmerdam Packing LLC, said in a May 26 interview with The Produce News.

Using both its web site, bigonions.com, and its Facebook site, Big Onions, the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee has launched a contest for recipes to be listed in a new cookbook being developed by the committee's marketing director, Sherise Jones.

On the Facebook site, visitors are provided a link to the committee's bigonion.com site, where a contest form is posted. The first 100 responses will be given a free onion "Beanie Baby."