Potato and onion business updates

Fresh Solution sees growth

San Francisco-based Fresh Solutions Network LLC, which includes eight potato grower/members, reported “stellar” performance for the year ending June 30.

President and CEO Kathleen Trio said shipment volume to retail increased 40% “collectively across all our partners,” compared to a year earlier.

“Per IRI, national retail volume sales was up 10%,” compared to the year-ago period, Triou said. “Therefore, our shipments outpaced national trends by 30 percentage points,” she said.

Retail volume shipments of the company’s Side Delights brand were up by nearly 6 percentage points, compared to a year earlier, Triou said.

Triou said Nov. 3 that consumer interest in how to cook potatoes has exploded with the pandemic.

“All these kind of brand new cooks were having to cook for their families three meals a day,” she said.

Side Delights has attracted a big increase in Facebook followers for its “how to” cooking videos and other resources.

“We have got a goal of 10x growth this year, and think we will hit it,” she said.

Lake Wales, Fla.-based grower-shipper Mack Farms Inc. recently made additions to its manufacturing plant by increasing product storage capacity, production and harvesting volumes and package offerings, said Nick Leger, salesman.

“We will extend offerings to include value added items under our Side Delights label,” he said.

MountainKing steps up production

Last year, Houston-based MountainKing Potatoes acquired a Colorado packing facility in the San Luis Valley dedicated exclusively to its fingerlings and smaller-sized baby yellows, reds and combination baby medleys, said Andreas Trettin, marketing director.

“We’ve also stepped up production of our gourmet Butter Russets, Butter Golds and Butter Reds in anticipation of increased demand for these varieties,” he said.

MountainKing recently added Cindy Adkins, a former owner and operator of the nation’s largest certified organic packer of fingerling potatoes, to its sales staff, Trettin said.

Adkins is based in Colorado, where she started growing and harvesting fingerlings in 1997, Trettin said.

“Cindy works alongside MountainKing’s retail partners to increase sales of our small round varieties and fingerlings,” he said.

NOA promotes Nature’s Ninja

The Eaton, Colo-based National Onion Association recently began its Nature’s Ninja marketing initiative, in which association members, who pay a small annual fee, can use the association’s Nature’s Ninja logo on their packaging and labeling, said Rene Hardwick, director of public and industry relations.

“We have a new website for Nature’s Ninja, where people can get recipes by variety, as well as learn all about the onion’s ninja qualities, Hardwick said.

“We will continue with social media channels and creating videos of great onion recipes in the future, as well as dabble a bit in radio.”

Peri gets ready for jumbo Sunions

Yerington, Nev.-based Peri & Sons Farms is excited about this year’s Sunions crop, said Jessica Peri, retail sales manager.

“For the past few years, it has been a struggle to grow a good jumbo size and had mostly mediums to market; this year we have a beautiful crop and can confidently sell bulk jumbos to retailers,” she said.

Shuman Farms makes hires, promotions

This year has seen growth at Reidsville, Ga.-based sweet onion grower-shipper Shuman Farms, said John Shuman, president and CEO.

“Stemming from our organizational rebrand the year before, we gave a fresh new look to our RealSweet brand website, realsweet.com,” he said.

“We expanded our content so that consumers can now learn more about the Shuman family’s history in the sweet onion business and meet the growers behind the brand. We also introduced a ‘farm to table’ look at our Vidalia onion production, educating consumers about where their food comes from and improve overall brand transparency.”

Shuman Farms recently added Mason Goolsby to its marketing department, Shuman said.

Shuman also promoted sales staff member Logan McCumber to sales manager, he said.

McCumber had been logistics coordinator with the company for about a year, Shuman said.

“We are confident that these personnel additions will further position our organization for growth leading up to 2021 and beyond,” he said.

Wisconsin Potato pairs with Jewel-Osco

The Antigo-based Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association is partnering with Jewel-Osco in the Chicago area on a Wisconsin potato promotion in their stores, said Dana Rady, director of promotions, communication and consumer education with the association.

“The promotion kicked off Oct. 14 and will last for several weeks throughout their 188 stores, as the new potato crop enters the market and we enter the holiday season,” Rady said.

“The partnership involves billboards and digital posters in Illinois encouraging consumers to ‘Enjoy Wisconsin Potatoes.’”

Store employees also are wearing bright green shirts that feature Wisconsin potatoes and replicate in-store signs, banners and regular ads promoting the same, Rady said.

“This has been a fantastic partnership for Wisconsin potatoes and especially in a very important area of the Midwest for the industry,” Rady said.

“It’s been a pleasure to work with Jewel-Osco on a promotion that truly emphasizes the importance of buying local and supporting Wisconsin potato farmers.”

— By Jim Offner and Tom Karst