WASHINGTON -- The United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association and the International Fresh-cut Produce Association announced April 19 that they will pool their resources and merge thir organizations to become the United Fresh Produce Association by the end of the year.

The new marriage reflects a consolidating industry, stepped up food-safety pressures and the ever-increasing blurred line between processing and other sectors of the supply chain.

With the rapid growth of organic sales in supermarkets, retailers need more information about the category. In grand style, Indianapolis Fruit Co. in Indianapolis is answering many of the questions.

On April 24-25 the produce distributor will host 200 industry members for a sophisticated, invitation-only seminar titled "Winning at Retail: Developing Organics as a Strategic Point of Difference."

WASHINGTON -- The leadership of the International Fresh-cut Produce Association and the United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association announced April 19 their intent to combine forces to deliver the highest possible level of value to members and meet today's critical challenges facing the fresh produce industry.

Joneen Jackson, a product manager at Dayka & Hackett LLC in Reedley, CA, is leading a double life.

A swim instructor and coach, Ms. Jackson is also a farmer's daughter who has found the perfect means of balancing her two passions in life. "You can't keep me out of the water and you can't keep me away from produce," she said.

A stock dividend payment has financial experts predicting a merger between The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Inc. in Montvale, NJ, and Pathmark Stores Inc. in Carteret, NJ. But retail produce industry experts don't see the possible marriage as a good fit.

A spokesman for Pathmark told The Produce News, "There is nothing I can or will say about that. We don't comment on rumors." Efforts to reach a spokesman for A&P were unsuccessful.

The California spring onion season starts around mid-April with onions out of the Imperial Valley in the state's southern desert region. That deal normally runs about six weeks, leading into the San Joaquin Valley onion harvest which starts around late May or early June. A late spring and summer deal, the San Joaquin Onion harvest begins around Bakersfield at the southern end of the valley and moving northward to the west side of the central San Joaquin Valley. The harvest generally continues into late August in the San Joaquin Valley.