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Wenatchee, Wash.-based Oneonta Starr Ranch Growers expects strong demand for organic apples and pears for the balance of the 2021-22 marketing season, said Dan Davis, director of business development.

Ocean Mist Farms is seeing strong growth in year-over-year performance of several of its organic commodities, said Katie Tossie, organic commodity account manager for the Castroville, Calif.-based marketer.

Atlanta, Ga.-based EarthFresh LLC is seeing good quality potatoes coming out of storage, said Libby Massey, marketing manager.

SYRACUSE, Utah-based Onions 52, has reached an agreement with Deming, NM and Hatch, NM-based growers, Cody Shiflett Produce and Hatch Valley Produce, to market their full line of onions for the 2022 summer season.

Potatoes ranked only behind bananas among fresh produce items most frequently purchased, according to The Packer’s 2022 Fresh Trends survey.

U.S. sweet potato area harvested in 2021 totaled 152,700 acres (data collected only in California, Mississippi and North Carolina), off just 2% from 155,300 acres in 2020 and 4% higher than 146,700 acres in 2019.

The Baton Rouge-based Louisiana Sweet Potato Commission is celebrating its 70-year anniversary in 2022, a milestone that doesn’t even tell the complete story of the roots of sweet potatoes in the state.

One in three people surveyed in The Packer’s 2022 Fresh Trends report said they purchased fresh sweet potatoes in the past 12 months.

The North Carolina SweetPotato Commission is celebrating 60 years and a big part of that celebration has come from RFD TV’s Chip Carter’s new TV series called “Where the Food Comes From.”

Nash Produce is well-positioned to manage sweet potato demand for the balance of the season, said Thomas Joyner, president of Nash Produce, Nashville, N.C.