The Idaho Potato Commission is seeing record interest in its Potato Lover's Month retail display contest.

"We are finding there is more interest in the [Potato Lover's Month retail display] contest than I have ever seen before, said Seth Pemsler, vice president of retail for the Idaho Potato Commission in Eagle, ID.

In a Jan. 19 interview with The Produce News, Mr. Pemsler said that he attributes the unusually high interest in this year's Potato Lover's Month contest "to the importance of potatoes today in our recessionary environment."

South African growers of summer citrus bound for the United States have signaled their intention to aggressively market their products in the Midwest and the West Coast for the first time and are expecting to raise the value of their exports to the United States to $500 million in 2010.

Demand for Hass avocados in the United States has grown at a steady pace for a number of years, but for the last couple of years, annual volume had plateaued at around 1 billion pounds due to limited availability of supply. This year, Hass avocado movement in the United States is expected to reach a record 1.35 billion pounds, with good volumes available from California, Mexico and Chile.

Sahlman Williams Public Relations & Marketing announced Jan. 15 that Gary Caloroso, a food marketing industry leader who directed the company's West Coast expansion, is the company's new president. Assuring management continuity, John Williams, the company's leader who created the food marketing practice, becomes the firm's chairman, while Sahlman Williams' long-time administrative leader, Cheryl Miller, becomes chief financial officer.

LOS ANGELES -- Giumarra Borquez LLC announced the last week in January the start of its asparagus season in Caborca, Mexico. The division is based in Escondido, CA, and markets asparagus year round from Mexico, Chile, Peru and California to the North American market.

"We are excited to begin shipping high-quality product in good volume out of this region through May," Bruce Dowhan, general manager of Giumarra Borquez, said in a Jan. 25 press release.

In a Jan. 12 letter to Rayne Pegg, administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service, the congressional delegation of the state of Idaho urged consideration of a request for the "purchase of fresh potatoes under your authority to remove surplus products under the Section 32 program."