U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has appointed 30 members to serve on the National Potato Promotion Board. Each member will serve a three-year term of office beginning March 1, 2013.

“Our customer base doesn’t vary much,” said Ryan Wahlen, sales manager at Pleasant Valley Potato Inc. in Aberdeen, ID. “We’ve got a really strong and loyal following and good customers — good, solid people.”

One reason for that, he explained, is they know they can count on Pleasant Valley for consistency in quality and supply of Russet Norkotah and Russet Burbank potatoes.

Al Harrison Co. Distributors in Nogales, AZ, which specializes in watermelons and hard shell squash, will be adding a new production area for winter watermelons in Mexico this season.

Beginning around December 10, the company will begin harvesting watermelons in the state of Nayarit in southern Mexico, according to President Brent Harrison. That should provide a steady supply of product for the company’s watermelon program through mid or late February.

“We offer a unique niche,” Brian Osborne, general manager of Unique Cold Storage in Pompano Beach, FL, told The Produce News. “We are uniquely qualified to handle offshore products in our facility, which can efficiently accommodate a variety of fresh produce items, each in their ideal temperature and humidity to ensure maximum shelf life and quality.”

Big Chuy Distributors & Sons Inc. in Nogales, AZ, which is in the watermelon business year round and in hard shell squash, sweet corn, Italian squash and some other items seasonally, will have “pretty much the same program as we have in past years” for “the winter deal this year,” according to Jesus (Chuy) Lopez Jr., the company’s president.

“The volume hasn’t changed,” Mr. Lopez continued. “We will maintain about the same.”

The selection committee for the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame announced five distinguished leaders will be inducted during the 51st Citrus Celebration Luncheon Feb. 27 at Florida Southern College in Lakeland.

Homer E. Hooks of Lakeland and J. Brantley Schirard of Ft. Pierce, FL, will be honored along with three others who will be inducted posthumously: Col. Francis L. Dancy, Paul L. Harding and Mathew K. Veldhuis.