Farmers in Tucuman, Argentina, are busy setting up for the coming season, The Perishable Specialist Inc. President Frank A. Ramos told The Produce News on Sept. 8. Mr. Ramos and his partner-wife, Ana, are licensed customs brokers who work together at the Miami, business.

M&M Marketing in St. Louis, a division of Tom Lange Co. which is headquartered in Springfield, IL and has some two dozen branch and division locations throughout North America, “has been specializing in the distribution of potatoes and onion since 1973,” according to the Tom Lange Co. web site.

M&M provides “the finest quality and variety from all growing regions in the United States,” the web site states.

The harvest of Idaho Russet Norkotahs was still a few days away for Potandon Produce LLC in Idaho Falls, ID, when The Produce News talked Aug. 23 with Jamey Higham, the company’s vice president of market development for foodservice.

Some potato packers in the state were already “up and going,” he said. “But we will start shipping Norkotahs toward the first part of next week,” with Russet Burbanks expected to begin “probably toward the end of September.”

“Our deal is pretty much the status quo as last year,” Les Alderete, director of grower relations in the Idaho Falls, ID, L&M Cos. Inc. office, told The Produce News regarding the company’s involvement in the Idaho potato deal.

L&M, a diversified produce growing, shipping and marketing organization headquartered in Raleigh, NC, markets potatoes of various types from several growing areas around the country — from Washington state to Florida.

Idaho product is an important component of that commodity mix, according to Mr. Alderete.

Wada Farms Marketing Group LLC in Idaho Falls, ID, is, according to the company’s web site, “the exclusive marketer of Wada Farms & Dole fresh potatoes, onions and sweet potatoes in North America with products available from every major growing region in the country. We also offer industry-leading retail category management analysis and support through our partner company Category Partners LLC.”

Not all packinghouses in Idaho run Russet Norkotah potatoes for as long as Pleasant Valley Potato Inc. in Aberdeen, ID. The Norkotah variety harvest starts weeks ahead of the first digs of Idaho’s longtime mainstay variety, the Russet Burbank, giving shippers a head start on the season. But for some shippers, the Burbank is still the dominant variety once it gets going.