News from the CF Fresh apple grower network is setting a positive tone for the coming apple season. “Some of our growers were hit by the network of hail storms that struck Washington at the end of July,” Import Coordinator and Food Safety Officer Addie Pobst told The Produce News on Aug. 20. “Thankfully, most of our growers came through those storms relatively unscathed. Despite the hail storm, overall the growing season has been very favorable to producing high-quality organic apples.

Tracking closely with Washington state’s overall apple numbers, Oneonta Starr Ranch Growers of Wenatchee, WA, is seeing excellent volume despite hail and other weather issues earlier in the season.

In late August, Marketing Director Scott Marboe told The Produce News, “The state is still expecting the second largest crop in history. Washington did have a number of weather-related issues in June and early July, but that damage has cleaned itself out and helped us get numbers more accurate. We as a company still expect to be a little over 10 million cartons this coming season.”

Tom Lundgren, president and owner of Spud City Sales LLC in Stevens Point, WI, said he is watching the market closely for signs that potato movement will pick up and pricing will improve. “Movement has been sluggish,” he told The Produce News Aug. 23. “The red market was decent at the beginning. But prices started to fall right after the first shipments.”

The scenario is also similar for russets. “It’s a supply-and-demand game,” he observed, adding that overproduction of potatoes this season has depressed pricing.

Bob Johnson, representative for Katz Produce Sales LLC in Rosholt, WI, knows what it takes to move fresh potatoes into the pipeline. With the Wisconsin potato harvest ramping up, he said, the industry will have its own set of challenges to address this season.

“Trucks are really tight now,” he told The Produce News Aug. 29. “The situation nationwide is trucks are getting tighter, tighter, tighter.” And he added that produce is not a high priority for the nation’s trucking companies.

Monte Vista, CO — Utilizing the considerable people skills of Olympic figure skater Rachael Flatt to tout potatoes grown in Colorado's San Luis Valley, the Colorado Potato Administrative Committee is reaching out to consumers both in the Rocky Mountain region and across the entire country.

SUN VALLEY, ID — The Great Big Idaho Potato Truck will keep rolling in 2013.

Frank Muir, president and chief executive officer of the Idaho Potato Commission, announced Aug. 30 during the commission's annual marketing report, here, at the 84th annual Idaho Grower Shipper Association conference, that the wildly popular semi-truck hauling a replica of a giant Idaho russet potato will embark on another cross-country tour in 2013.