CENTER, CO — As they awaited certification by Primus Labs as Global Food Safety Initiative-compliant, sales and logistics staffers at Skyline Potato Co. in Center, CO, were also moving potatoes out of Nebraska and looking to the start of the 2011-12 San Luis Valley season as well.

“We have three sheds in operation and are able to meet all of our customers’ needs,” said Randy Bache, general manager and chief operating officer of Skyline and chief operating officer of Fresh Innovations LLC, produce grower-shipper and Skyline sister company in Yuma, AZ.

Noting a “fluid” potato market in late August as harvest of the 2011 potato crop was getting underway in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, H.R. Bushman Corp. Sales Manager Sal Pupillo said conditions will naturally change when the spuds are out of the fields and in storage.

From his office in St. Louis, Mr. Pupillo said on Aug. 30, “As soon as we get into storage, supply and demand take over.”

He said that Bushman has started moving northern Colorado potatoes, and he said that in the fluctuating market cartons “seem to be holding their own.”

CENTER, CO — Describing 2010-11 as a good year for Aspen Produce and sister company, Ponderosa Partnership farm, Farm and Operations Manager Jed Ellithorpe said on Aug. 15 the Center, CO, shed was running both 2010-11 San Luis Valley spuds and new crop potatoes out of northern Colorado.

“We have had plenty of potatoes,” Mr. Ellithorpe said of Aspen’s 12-month program, noting that overall the valley had experienced a short crop.

Shipments of the 2011-12 crop for Aspen were set to start Aug. 29 with early varieties.

Colorado Specialty Potatoes is preparing to move a quality crop into the pipeline. Pam Bogle, who manages the company’s warehouse and is part of the sales team, said specialty potatoes are grown by Bigelow Associated Farms. “J.B. Farms LLC, doing business as Colorado Specialty Potaotes is the shipper and the warehouse,” she told The Produce News on Aug. 24. “Ken Burback is the farm manager.”

MONTE VISTA, CO — With an Aug. 18 start for its 2011 potato season, Worley & McCullough Inc. has some of the earliest loads leaving the San Luis Valley this year.

According to Trampas McCormick, sales manager for W&M, the spuds were planted in April, and a Texas line of Norkotahs that “did well in the July heat” came out first.

Bill Metz, third-generation potato farmer, carries on the legacy begun by his grandfather and father, the founders of Metz Potato Co. in Monte Vista, CO. “We pride ourselves in shipping quality, not quantity,” he said Aug. 22. Today, Mr. Metz and his son, Greg, are the face of one of the few independent potato shippers left in the San Luis Valley.

Metz Potato Co. began operations in the 1930s. Mr. Metz said his grandfather installed one of the first air conditioning units in the valley in the 1940s. “He could hold potatoes until late spring and early May,” Mr. Metz said.