Demand for Hass avocados in the United States has grown at a steady pace for a number of years, but for the last couple of years, annual volume had plateaued at around 1 billion pounds due to limited availability of supply. This year, Hass avocado movement in the United States is expected to reach a record 1.35 billion pounds, with good volumes available from California, Mexico and Chile.

Sahlman Williams Public Relations & Marketing announced Jan. 15 that Gary Caloroso, a food marketing industry leader who directed the company's West Coast expansion, is the company's new president. Assuring management continuity, John Williams, the company's leader who created the food marketing practice, becomes the firm's chairman, while Sahlman Williams' long-time administrative leader, Cheryl Miller, becomes chief financial officer.

LOS ANGELES -- Giumarra Borquez LLC announced the last week in January the start of its asparagus season in Caborca, Mexico. The division is based in Escondido, CA, and markets asparagus year round from Mexico, Chile, Peru and California to the North American market.

"We are excited to begin shipping high-quality product in good volume out of this region through May," Bruce Dowhan, general manager of Giumarra Borquez, said in a Jan. 25 press release.

In a Jan. 12 letter to Rayne Pegg, administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service, the congressional delegation of the state of Idaho urged consideration of a request for the "purchase of fresh potatoes under your authority to remove surplus products under the Section 32 program."

Supplies of jumbo and colossal Sweet Clover sweet yellow onions will be "excellent" through March, and the famed Red Wing single-center variety of red onion will also be plentiful through May, according to Sweet Clover Produce Sales Manager Bill Brownfield.

From his office in Walla Walla, WA, Mr. Brownfield told The Produce News that quality is also very good, and the third-party audited onions are tested and guaranteed to be sweet. In addition, the farms and facilities are certified for Good Importing Practices and Good Agricultural Practices.

Aid for survivors of the Jan. 12 catastrophic 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti is pouring in from around the world, including from the food industry.

On Jan. 14, Wakefern Food Corp. in Elizabeth, NJ, announced in a press release that on behalf of its ShopRite and PriceRite stores, it will donate $250,000 to the American Red Cross to assist in the relief efforts for earthquake victims in Haiti.