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FreshAPRIL / MAY 2017 DIGESTA 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 FPFC Names 2017 Apprentice Class FOCUS ON TRAINING 10 Light Crop Creates Targeted Effort FOCUS ON AVOCADOS 12 500 Million Avocados Sold During 2016 Avocado Holidays FOCUS ON AVOCADO MOVEMENT 14 It’s All About Taste for Zespri FOCUS ON KIWIFRUIT 28 16 FPFC Northern California EXPO Cover photo provided by User Friendly, Ink. EVENT PHOTOS AND THANK YOUS 28 FPFC Family Day at the Races EVENT PHOTOS AND THANK YOUS 34 Grower Panel Discuss Challenges Of Farming in California FOCUS ON THE FPFC 35 Northern California Membership Luncheon EVENT PHOTOS AND THANK YOUS Volume 45, Number 2 April / May 2017 Departments FRESH DIGEST (ISSN-1522-0982) is published bimonthly for $15 of FPFC membership dues; 4 Editor’s View $25 for annual subscription for non-members By Tim Linden by Fresh Produce & Floral Council; 2400 E. Katella Avenue, Suite 330, Anaheim CA 92806. 6 Executive Notes Periodicals postage paid at Anaheim, CA, and By Carissa Mace at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to FRESH DIGEST, 26 Council News 2400 E. Katella Avenue, Suite 330, Anaheim FPFC Highlights CA 92806. 35 APRIL / MAY 2017 3 It’s a Matter of Perspective My dad was going to stay that high for months. We have been a wholesaler on the going through at least 10 avocados a week. That’s Los Angeles terminal $25 just on avocados each week. Our berry bill is market during all of in the same neighborhood. In college, my room- my youth and teen- mate and I would each put $25 in a jar on top of age years. I had a the refrigerator at the beginning of each month for Red Delicious apple all of our food needs. We rarely had to feed the in my lunch bag ev- jar before the end of the month. ery day of the year, The other day I happened to be talking with and during corn sea- Tim Linden my wife about our grocery outlay as we drank a son, we had corn on bit before dinner. It had been a particularly difficult the cob every night as well. week for both of us, so I reached into the stash and It made sense. During the early part of his ca- pulled out a couple of Friday-worthy bottles. A reer my dad represented Washington apples, and he Rombauer Chardonnay for my wife and a Zinfandel was known for sweet corn sales in the L.A. market from the same vintner for me. We could each enjoy for many, many years. He had access to those items our favorite wine color without worrying about VIEW and was constantly bringing home a box of apples running out because of poaching from the other. I or a crate of corn. Besides filling our refrigerator, he mentioned my daughter’s unabashed avocado and By Tim Linden would bag them up and one of his kids was required berry habit and opined that she just might be able to make the rounds of our closest neighbors, leaving to alter her munching habits to fit the season. a bag of produce on their porches. Right now pears and citrus are in peak season, I am also in the produce industry, but with and maybe a quarter of an avocado per toast slice very little access to free food. Nonetheless, like would suffice. As I poured my second glass of this my father before me, I make sure there is always tasty red, I observed that bananas are always at a ample fresh produce for my family in the refrigera- bargain price and Red Delicious apples were good tor. With my two older kids out on their own, the enough for me. Grapes are plentiful and reasonable chief consumer I need to please each day is my high through most of the year and maybe tomato toast school-aged daughter. Unfortunately, my daughter’s would be good. tastes run on the expensive side. She likes apples I was getting a head of steam when my wife but only the new more expensive varieties, and asked me if each glass of wine we were drinking never in her lunch. For lunch it has to be blueberries cost more or less than an avocado, even at today’s or strawberries. Almost every morning she wants prices. I pondered that question for a moment and avocado toast, featuring one-half of an avocado, un- determined that avocados and berries reallyy aren’t less the avocado is small or her appetite is big that that expensive. They really are a bargain. day. Then she will eat an entire avocado. She has very good eating habits pretty much all the time and often meanders to the refrigerator at all times on the weekends or after school or after dinner and will eat berries or avocado toast. That’s all good…except in years like this one. As you know, we have had a lot of rain this year, FPFC MISSION STATEMENT which caused berry prices to be pretty expensive. Instead of a two-pound clamshell being promoted at The Fresh Produce & Floral Council is a dynamic community of professionals across all sectors of $5, we often have been paying that same $5 for one the fresh produce and floral industry who do pound, which never lasts more than a day or two. business in California and the western region. Blueberries are typically more expensive. At least The Council is dedicated to providing members warm spring weather is seeing a return to normal with convenient opportunities to build productive berry prices. As the California season got underway, relationships, access timely market information, enhance their business skills, and pool their avocados have been $2.49 each at my local market, efforts to promote and advance the industry. and that’s not for a big one. It looks like they are EDITOR'S 4 FRESH DIGEST We’ve Been Busy In the first right direction, achieving goals, serving the industry three months of 2017 to the best of our ability, and doing what we need the Fresh Produce to do to adhere to our mission statement. & Floral Council has We will again be holding strategic planning had five events, three meetings this year with the plan ready for approval of which are among at our November Board of Directors retreat. our biggest events In addition to the industry calendar, we will of the year – the An- be taking a hard look at issues such as staffing (do nual Dinner Dance, we have enough staff, the right staff, etc.), issues the Family Day at the Carissa Mace affecting the industry both nationally and region- Races and the North- ally, and expectations of members, among other ern California Expo. factors. You get surveys from us from time to time; Normally we try to space things out better we use this information to help form plans to best but the calendar is not always our friend. In the last serve membership so before you automatically click few years there has been an explosion of events “delete” maybe take just a moment to consider in the industry. With the proliferation of regional filling it out. It is a case of “if you don’t vote, don’t NOTES events, private events by companies, and charitable complain” thing. If there are things you want to see By Carissa Mace events you could, almost literally, be attending some- the organization do, it really helps if you take the thing every day. Add in the holidays and it makes time to tell us. I promise the surveys we send out finding dates for events a real challenge. will be short. We know how valuable your time is When we were looking for a date for our and don’t want to waste it. Northern California Expo, traditionally held in April, Now that we have no events until the May we found there were no dates available in that 3rd Southern California Membership Luncheon, time frame. Other industry events and the Easter staff can take a moment to re-group, get caught up holiday made it impossible. On a side note… this on projects, start working on the rest of the year’s whole Easter having a different date every year is events and do our planning for the future. We look REALLY a pain in an event planner’s butt. I’m just forward to you being a part of the process! sayin’…. Thus, we had to push the Expo back to the last week of March. This meant within a two week period we were producing two big, time-consuming events – Family Day at the Races and the Expo. In addition, we had committee meetings and a Board of Directors meeting thrown into the mix those weeks. Needless to say, staff (all three of us) were FPFC OFFICE going a bit nuts. 2400 E. Katella Avenue, Suite 330 Anaheim, CA 92806 So nuts, in fact, that when Tim Linden, the edi- tGBY tor of this magazine, asked for our contributions to Website: www.fpfc.org the magazine the week after the Races, which was a week before the Northern California Expo, our Editorial Office heads almost exploded. Luckily we had the option Tim Linden of pushing the deadline back a week.