California Giant's Florida strawberry growers got through the December freezes in good shape. Now Director of Marketing Cindy Jewell is focusing on marketing those berries as part of a year-round program that also includes product from company farms in California and Mexico.

A year ago, Winter Haven, FL-based SunnyRidge Farm Inc. took a giant step forward when it opened a new 51,000-square-foot facility in Plant City, FL.

The new facility tripled capacity and was designed to give the company room to grow. That plan is moving ahead according to schedule, said Sal Toscano, who launched the Plant City facility for SunnyRidge and is now leading it through its third season.

Now in its third season growing in Florida, Watsonville, CA-based Well-Pict Inc. again increased production acreage this year and continues to move toward growing nothing but proprietary strawberries in Florida.

As the new year rang in, Plant City, FL's Wishnatzki Inc. was readying for a deluge of strawberries. Company President Gary Wishnatzki told The Produce News Dec. 29 that the company was about to enter its heaviest production of the season for a two-week period that would run through the middle of January.

Wahluke Produce Inc., headquartered in Mattawa, WA, grows conventional russet Norkotahs for the fresh market. Sales Manager Scott Nesbit said that the company's early season crops were somewhat affected by cool, wet weather in the Pacific Northwest this season. "But our later planted fields did really well," he told The Produce News Jan. 4. He expects potato volume for the 2010-11 season will be down approximately 14 percent when compared to last season.

NoKota Packers Inc., based in Buxton, ND, is ahead of its five-year average in packing its red storage potatoes, company president Steve Tweten said Dec. 28.

"We are doing real well" in moving the 2010 crop, he said. Despite strong early movement, “We always ship into the spring. We still plan to take care of our customers.”

NoKota will ship into either April or May, depending upon demand.

“Quality is looking good,” he said. “We still have a lot of good potatoes.”