Latest News From Sweet Potatoes

Frieda’s Specialty Produce, Los Alamitos, Calif., will be featured on “CBS Sunday Morning” in a segment featuring companies that have had an effect on American food culture.

It’s “home sweet holiday” time again for Bland Farms, Glennville, Ga., which is making its holiday-themed display merchandiser available to retailers.

Farm Pak Products Inc., Spring Hope, N.C., is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Nashville, N.C.-based Nash Produce is adding to its Mr. Yam brand lineup.

North Carolina sweet potato shipments accounted for 70% of U.S. sweet potato shipments in 2018, down slightly from 73% in 2017 and even with 2016.

Health benefits are becoming a major selling point of North Carolina Sweet potatoes.

Frieda’s is sharing ideas on how to make produce sections ready for World Vegetarian Day on Oct. 1.

For U.S. produce growers, the bark of Hurricane Dorian was worse than its bite.

Iota, La.-based Garber Farms is expanding its acreage of a new purple-skin and purple-flesh variety of sweet potato.

Frieda’s Specialty Produce will begin offering two new holiday-themed shippers for displaying Stokes purple sweet potatoes.

Global sweet potato promotion is growing southern U.S. sweet potato exports.

After unfavorable weather conditions last fall, sweet potato yields dropped from 224 cwt. per acre in 2017 to 190 cwt. per acre in 2018. This season producers are looking forward to the new crop to bring better yields.

The USDA has filed an administrative complaint against sweet potato company Southern Produce Distributors, Faison, N.C., alleging the company failed to pay $3.49 million to produce sellers.

Sweet potato grower-shipper Wayne Bailey Produce Co LLC, which closed after 85 years this spring, left creditors with more than $8.1 million in unpaid debt, according to the USDA.

Culinary experts from Los Alamitos, Calif-based Frieda’s Specialty Produce created grilling and picnic-friendly recipes inspired by Stokes Purple sweet potatoes and put them in a new recipe portal.

Simcoe, Ontario-based Berlo’s Best, Canada’s largest sweet potato producer, is adding another 5,500 square feet to its storage warehouse for a total of 90,000 square feet.

North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission now is working with a new marketing agency — Raleigh, N.C.-based Fresh-West-Vaughan, said Kelly McIver, the commission’s executive director.

Wilson, N.C.-based Vick Family Farms is expanding its organic line of Natural Gold sweet potatoes, said Charlotte Vick, partner.

Sweet potato grower-shipper Wayne Bailey Produce, Chadbourn, N.C., is closing after 85 years, and its customers will now be served by Jackson Farming Co.

Steven Ceccarelli, owner of Faison, N.C.-based sweet potato company Farm Fresh Produce Inc., has been named the Small Business Administration North Carolina Small Business Person of the Year.

The North Carolina Sweetpotato Commission is planning to launch a branding program for sweet potatoes grown in North Carolina.

The likelihood of a sweet potato purchase slipped three percentage points from Fresh Trends 2017.

Two hurricanes and heavy rain elsewhere in the southeastern U.S. at the critical sweet potato harvesting time means volume from the 2018 crop isn’t as high as other years.

Sweet potatoes are a popular vegetable among U.S. shoppers, with female, white and high-income consumers among the most frequent purchasers.

"Now if you could just solve the yam/sweet potato confusion."

Amelia and Ashley discuss which age groups and regions buy the most sweet potatoes, along with their experiences with the vegetable and "millennial-friendly" ways to use it.

Sweet potato grower-shipper Southern Produce Distributors, like many North Carolina growers, faced adversity this year with Hurricane Florence’s rains.

A quarantine of North Carolina sweet potatoes will not affect fresh sweet potatoes leaving the state.

60% of U.S. sweet potatoes are grown in Eastern North Carolina, but farmers there have seen yields decimated now by two hurricanes.

60% of U.S. sweet potatoes are grown in Eastern North Carolina, but farmers there have seen yields decimated now by two hurricanes.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to purchase 2018 crop year sweet potatoes for distribution to various food nutrition assistance programs.

There is no use trying to pin down the precise amount of damage caused to the North Carolina sweet potato crop by Hurricane Florence and the remnants of tropical storm Michael.

As mid-September approached, some sweet potato growers in North Carolina said they were praying for rain. Then, Hurricane Florence rumbled ashore Sept. 14-15 and brought too much of a good thing.

Peppers, potatoes and other vegetables have built up their own following in the organic section.

Hurricane Florence caused more than $1.1 billion in damage to crops and livestock in North Carolina, according to a new state estimate. Of that, about $27 million is damage to vegetables and horticultural crop losses.

Editor Tom Karst and retail editor Ashley Nickle run down the big stories of the week, from Hurricane Florence and sweet potatoes to India tariffs on apples to a major e-commerce move by Aldi.

Significant damage to North Carolina’s sweet potato crop is anticipated after Hurricane Florence pounded many areas of the state with double-digit rainfall totals.

Editor Tom Karst and retail editor Ashley Nickle talk about what the arrival of Hurricane Florence means for produce and why slow adoption of online grocery doesn't mean it won't increase significantly in the future.

Waiting for slow-moving Hurricane Florence to arrive in North Carolina was compared by one observer to being stalked by a turtle.

North Carolina sweet potato growers are scrambling to harvest as much of their crop as possible before Hurricane Florence makes landfall.

Mini sweet potato tray products marketed as Tasteful Selections, a specialty potato brand from RPE, will soon be available in six flavors.

As U.S. sweet potato exports increase, The American Sweet Potato Marketing Institute is using special events, promotional activities and social media to tout the benefits of sweet potatoes worldwide.

 Skies were sunny and blue on Sept. 11 in Chadbourn, N.C., but Hurricane Florence was bound to change that reality by Sept. 12 or Sept. 13.

Wayne E. Bailey Produce Co. expects to emerge from bankruptcy the first week of September, after filing for Chapter 11 in January.

Catch up on the latest product and personnel news from several sweet potato grower-shippers in North Carolina and Louisiana.

Southern sweet potato acreage is expected to drop again this year, leaving grower-shippers hopeful that fewer acres will result in lower volume and an uptick in prices.

Penick Produce Co. Inc., a sweet potato company in Vardaman, Miss., has posted a $75,000 cash surety bond with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Sweet potato grower-shipper Southern Produce Distributors has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with plans to restructure and continue business.

Sweet potato grower-shipper Southern Produce Distributors has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with plans to restructure and continue business.

Vidalia onion grower-shipper Bland Farms, Glennville, Ga., has been recognized for its export business by the state of Georgia — but not for what you think.