MONTEREY, CA  If networking truly is the strength of the Produce Marketing Association Foodservice Conference Tours & Exposition held July 23-25, then produce industry professionals have to be gratified by the more than 1,500 attendees who gathered here.

Included among the 1,500 attendees was double the number of foodservice buyers as last year.

A major sampling tour will look to boost consumer awareness of papayas from Brazil and fortify three leading North American markets of the fruit.

MOSES LAKE, WA  Since joining the Washington State Potato Commission in February 2005 as its director of trade, Matt Harris has tackled a number of issues involving foreign trade partners of the United States, and the recent hearing before the Canadian International Trade Tribunal is one of the more prominent.

Ellie Coen's mother always said that her daughter would love working in the produce industry. It turns out that mom was right.

"She was an inspiration to me," the 28-year-old account manager for Dovex Marketing in Wenatchee, WA, said of B.J. Holland, who died just over a year-and-a-half ago. Well known in the Wenatchee Valley fruit business, Ms. Holland had her own pear orchard, which is still managed by her husband, and had worked over the last 12 to 15 years in sales for Dovex as well as for Stemilt Growers and Gwin, White & Prince Inc., also in Wenatchee.

Prime Produce International LLC, an avocado marketing organization in Lake Forest, CA, is relocating its corporate offices to Placentia, CA, near Anaheim, where the company will now also operate its own cold storage facility, according to Prime Produce President and CEO Avi Crane.

The move will allow the company to better serve customers and growers, he said.

Prime Produce, which sources avocados both domestically and globally, was founded in early 2004 by Mr. Crane, an avocado industry veteran.