The Peruvian Asparagus Importer's Association has indicted that asparagus production in Peru is forecast to increase by 10 percent this year, and the association expects that exports to the United States for the 2009-10 season will also increase.

Many importers said that their own volumes are expected to increase fairly significantly and backed up this viewpoint. Most importers are anticipating a 5-15 percent increase in total volume, but many said their own firms will see their individual volume increase more than that.

Alexander Ott, executive director of the California Apple Commission, said that the state's apple producers are anticipating a quality crop for the 2009 season. "Size looks good, and the crop looks clean," he told The Produce News in late July.

Last season, growers experienced very favorable conditions, with the 2008 crop exceeding industry expectations. This season, growers and handlers are cautiously optimistic. "We're projecting near to where we were last year," Mr. Ott said. "We're being conservative right now."

"We're really in planning mode for the 2010 crop year," Jan DeLyser, vice president of marketing for the California Avocado Commission in Irvine, CA, told The Produce News.

The California avocado industry was just wrapping up its smallest crop in decades, but the 2010 crop was expected to be at least double 2009.

"So as we are looking to the future," there is, within the commission, "a real desire to keep the marketing dollars working," Ms. DeLyser said.

The United Fresh Produce Association announced that U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will deliver the keynote address at the group's Washington Public Policy Conference in September.

Results of a survey conducted in June by the Produce for Better Health Foundation regarding the idea of a National Fruit & Vegetable Research & Promotion Board are in, but the low response rate indicates that more outreach is needed before a second survey is conducted.

The foundation e-mailed an electronic survey to growers, shippers, processors and importers on the topic of a national research and promotion board.

For several years, a NASCAR sponsorship was a big part of the Mexican Hass Avocado Importers Association's promotional efforts. For the 2008-09 season, MHAIA stepped away from NASCAR and began looking instead for what MHAIA Chairman Mike Browne, vice president of fresh operations for Calavo Growers Inc. in Santa Paula, CA, referred to as "another Super Bowl" -- another seasonal event around which could be built an avocado promotion as successful as the Super Bowl weekend promotional period has been for avocados in general and Chilean avocados in particular.