April/May 2016
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FreshAPRIL / MAY 2016 DIGEST A P U B L I C A T I O N O F T H E F R E S H P R O D U C E & F L O R A L C O U N C I L 10 Features 8 CAC Heavily Invested in West Coast Marketing FOCUS ON AVOCADOS 12 Hass Avocado Board Report Highlights FOCUS ON RETAIL TRENDS 16 California & Northwest Crops Watching Spring Rains with Interest FOCUS ON CHERRIES 18 Retail Changes Noted by Luncheon Speaker 12 FOCUS ON RETAIL 20 February Northern California Luncheon EVENT PHOTOS AND THANK YOUS 24 Slow Start Should Yield Big Volume FOCUS ON STRAWBERRIES 25 FPFC Family Day at the Races EVENT PHOTOS AND THANK YOUS 30 Luncheon Speaker Examines Political Landscape FOCUS ON POLITICS 32 Cover design by: User Friendly, Ink. February Southern California Luncheon Departments EVENT PHOTOS AND THANK YOUS Volume 44, Number 2 APRIL / MAY 2016 4 Editor’s View By Tim Linden FRESH DIGEST (ISSN-1522-0982) is 6 Executive Notes published bimonthly for $15 of FPFC membership dues; $25 for annual By Carissa Mace subscription for non-members by 14 Council News Fresh Produce & Floral Council; 2400 FPFC Highlights E. Katella Avenue, Suite 330, Anaheim CA 92806. Periodicals postage paid 35 Trade News at Anaheim, CA, and at additional Industry Highlights mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to FRESH DIGEST, 36 A Different View 2400 E. Katella Avenue, Suite 330, By Tim Linden & Tom Fielding 27 Anaheim CA 92806. APRIL / MAY 2016 3 Life Lessons from March Madness Lessons in life tion rate of their players, had more fans attending can be found under games and their coach was credited with being a virtually any stone. great fundraiser and a molder of men. They reached For this one, I trav- the NCAA Sweet 16 just three years ago. He was eled to Las Vegas fired this year after the team went 15-15. and spent two 13- Because universities are obsessed with win- hour days in a hotel ning now, so are coaches. “One and done” is a ballroom watching familiar NCAA basketball phrase that refers to 32 basketball games the superstar athletes who are recruited to the from end to end in Tim Linden “power” schools with the full knowledge that they the increasingly pop- are going to spend one year at the school trying ular NCAA College Basketball Tournament. to achieve that championship on their way to the I have been making this trek every year for NBA, where they will start playing for millions of the past 25, along with a handful or two of friends. dollars per year. While they are sometimes called We usually arrive Wednesday night before the first student-athletes by men in suits, no one mistakes round of 32 games ...16 played on Thursday and 16 them for the normal student struggling to get classes VIEW on Friday. They are played live in venues all over the and learn calculus. country and broadcast to many more venues. This win-at-all-costs philosophy has delivered By Tim Linden Our modus operandi has not changed much some valuable life lessons that were illustrated quite over the years, but the tournament has. One nicely during the most recent tournament. reluctantly-designated member of our crowd arrives This year there were more upsets than in very early in the morning to get a good table or any first round in the history of the NCAA Tourna- two front and center in the ball room with great ment. All around us, throughout days one and two, viewing access to the 10 big screen TVs splayed teams from non-power conference with non-power out in front of us. For the next two days, we watch coaches were playing David against Goliath and slay- those games, dissecting every layup and rebound, ing the big behemoths with their sling shots. consume copious amounts of beverages of one For the most part, these smaller-stature flavor or another and donate some hard-earned schools have grizzled coaches that have been there dollars to the running of the casinos through a for years. Their administrations tend to be more concept called betting. patient, valuing loyalty and experience over the What has changed about the tournament is win-it-all now attitudes. The players are also dif- that dreaded sports word called parity. What parity ferent. The vast majority are never going to make in the basketball world means is that almost any of it to the NBA, or even be drafted. A few might the 64 teams can win that first game. There used play elsewhere, but most have to start looking for to be super teams, loaded with experienced players, suitable employment fairly soon. They are not one- against which the smaller teams from smaller confer- and-doners, but instead are truly student-athletes. ences had no real chance. UCLA’s 10 champion- Many are seniors that have been on the team for ships in 12 years in the 1960s and ‘70s embodied all four years with the same coach. In our group, this philosophy. They were loaded with very good we look for teams with “senior leadership” as they players. Each year, a couple would graduate and a tend to over-perform while those with freshman couple more joined as freshman. The team was led tend to under-perform. by the legendary coach John Wooden, who coached This year, experience often won over flash, at UCLA for 28 years, including the first 16 with no substance over style. Those who put in their time NCAA tournament titles. and followed the plan succeeded. Those who did Basketball has changed since Wooden’s ten- not ended up going home after their first game. ure. In the first place, very few coaches at a “Power While many think they will be soothed by a long Conference” universities (such as UCLA) would be career in the NBA, in reality that is not going to given 16 years of coaching before winning the tour- happen. In the lottery of talent, there are a few ney. Case in point is the Stanford coach of the last people who have incredible talent and succeed. eight years. During that time, Stanford won many For the rest of us, it’s all about putting in the time and doing the work. EDITOR'S more games than they lost, improved the gradua- 4 FRESH DIGEST A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Luncheon It seems like we didn’t have time to go back to Hertz and we a simple enough weren’t sure anyone at the Hertz airport lot could thing. We are put- help us anyhow. ting on a Northern We hit the road and went into problem solv- California luncheon ing mode with our cell phones. I had to fly home so staff boards planes that night so I got on the phone with my husband Thursday morning to talk him through finding my passport so he could for Oakland, drives take a picture of it and text it to me. Brett got on to Pleasanton, runs the phone with Southwest Airlines to find out what the luncheon, and a Carissa Mace ID would be required if I couldn’t get my license committee meeting back and Angie called Hertz to see how they could beforehand, and then drives back to the airport help. I didn’t want my license left in this rental car to catch flights back to Southern Californian. And for someone to find one day. That seemed like a usually that’s exactly how it goes. But heading to bad idea. the February 25th luncheon in Pleasanton recently, The call to Hertz was a perfect example of something a bit different happened. customer “no-service,” so to speak. Angie explained Brett Roberts, Angela Steier and I flew up that the situation and was basically told in no uncertain NOTES morning. While Brett and Angie were waiting for terms, we can’t help you. Nothing we can do. Angie By Carissa Mace our luggage full of event supplies, I went to get the explained we were going to get that license out of rental car. Again, seems simple enough. We have there, so if they couldn’t help we were going to have repeatedly rented from Hertz and normally get a to try and take the drawer out. Angie was informed basic mid-size car. While that is what I had reserved, by the very surly Hertz employee that we would be Hertz upgraded us to a Mercedes Benz SUV for charged for any damage to the car. Gee, thanks! the same price. Sweet! Well, not so much. I’d have So Angie decided to go postal on the console been much happier in the long run with a Chevy and, with a pair of scissors, started to pry the top Malibu or some other basic car. part off. When we got to Castlewood Country Club This particular model had a console in the for the luncheon, Brett was able to get the rest of it middle, connected to the dashboard with a roller off with shear brute force. And lo and behold, we drawer on top. The drawer was closed, lending could see the license wedged tightly between the itself to be a shelf, a convenient place to set your drawer and dashboard. cell phone. As I was checking out at the drive-thru Angie and our AV tech at the event (AV techs booth with Hertz, I got my driver’s license out and carry tools), then attempted to get the license but when the Hertz clerk handed it back to me, I set it was so tightly wedged and the space so awkward, it on the “shelf.” This is when things went horribly, there was no way to get at it.