The Ontario Produce Marketing Association held its annual gala dinner and awards ceremony Nov. 12 at the DoubleTree International Plaza Hotel in Toronto.

Almost 400 people attended the event and were treated to an evening of fun, food and excitement, as well as industry tributes during the group's 10th annual awards ceremony.

A highlight of the evening was the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement award to Gerard (Whitey) Van Alebeek of Bradford & District Produce Ltd. Steve Stewart, a long time associate of Mr. Van Alebeek, presented the award.

Guadalupe, CA-based grower-shipper Beachside Produce LLC and Santa Maria, CA-based Main Street Produce Inc. have struck an agreement whereby Beachside began marketing Main Street's vegetable products Nov. 9.

Main Street Produce, a longtime grower-shipper of broccoli, bell peppers and strawberries in the Santa Maria Valley, will continue to market its own strawberry crops.

Florida Citrus Mutual, headquartered in Lakeland, FL, organized and hosted the second International Citrus Canker & Greening Research Workshop Nov. 7-11 in Orlando, FL. The meeting assembled international researchers who have specific expertise on canker and greening to discuss the current status of knowledge and to extract information relative to the ongoing situation in Florida.

Naples, FL-based Global Berry Farms LLC has reached an agreement through its Naturipe Berry Growers arm to market strawberries grown by Watsonville, CA-based Pacific Gold Farms.

Pacific Gold's strawberries will be marketed under Global's "Naturipe" label. Pacific Gold Farms will continue to grow berries but will no longer market them itself.

Do these statements sound familiar to you?

CEO: "We're going to give our customers the best products all of the time at the lowest prices along with superior service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Blah, blah, blah ..."

Division vice president: "This new corporate produce program is one of the best ever and supervision will get behind it all the way. We'll support any extra labor it needs to make it work. I'm not just saying this because company officers are here at our meeting. Blah, blah, blah ..."

Sun World International LLC in Bakersfield, CA, and the Plant Board of Israel in Tel Aviv reached a definitive agreement Nov. 21 relative to the licensed production and marketing of Suplumeleven and Suplumtwelve variety plums in Israel.

The agreement was announced by the plant board manager, Gadi Horvitz, and Sun World Senior Vice President David Marguleas.