An association of avocado growers in Mexico best known by its acronym APEAM has filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Food & Agriculture, claiming that the department impeded the marketing of Mexican avocados in California. The suit was filed Jan. 11 in Sacramento County Superior Court.

Demand for Hass avocados in the United States has more than doubled over the last seven years and now stands at around 1 billion pounds annually. Most of that volume comes from three sources: California, Mexico and Chile.

A year ago, California avocados were hit hard by a freeze, which reduced an already smaller crop than the previous year's bumper harvest. As a result, the 2007 California shipping season ended early.

The board of managers at Sun World International LLC, which is headquartered in Bakersfield, CA, has named Allen Vangelos, who is a member of the company's board of managers, "to the additional positions of president and chief executive officer on an interim basis." He will oversee all company operations. The announcement was made in a Jan. 18 company press release.

Grant Oswalt, a senior sales representative at Salinas, CA-based Coastline, died Friday evening, Jan. 11, after a brief illness.

Mr. Oswalt spent some 25 years in the fresh produce industry, having joined the Coastline sales team in October 2005, where he was a senior sales representative. Mr. Oswalt came to Coastline from produce broker Fresh Network in Salinas.

Prior to that, he had been a sales manager at Duda's California operations, Salyer American Fresh Foods Inc., Capurro Farms and Apio Inc., all in California.

Deal-making was his game, and now the citrus industry is likely to be his fame. When 29-year-old Patrick Norris was interviewed by David Mixon, chief marketing officer, and Mayda Sotomayor, chief executive officer, of Seald Sweet, headquartered in Vero Beach, FL, they expressed enthusiasm over the prospect of welcoming into the industry a young person who did not have experience in the produce industry.

Dole Fresh Fruit and Dole Fresh Vegetables, subsidiaries of Dole Food Co. Inc., announced enhancements to their marketing operations.

Yvonne Rentmeester has been promoted to the position of marketing services manager for Dole Fresh Fruit. In this position, Ms. Rentmeester will expand her role currently managing the technical services department to encompass banana ripening and product handling from warehouse all the way through the retail store. She will assume direct responsibility for Dole Fresh Fruit's marketing representatives and the merchandising program.