Nash Produce, a leading sweet potato shipper based in Nashville, NC, announced that it has fully implemented a case-level labeling and traceability system, and now is applying Produce Traceability Initiative-compliant labels on each of its cases and RPCs of sweet potatoes.

The 2011 peanut crop in the United States was forecast to be down significantly from the large crop in 2010, according to estimates released Sept. 12 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Production for 2011 was estimated at just under 3.5 billion pounds, compared to nearly 4.2 billion pounds in 2010.

Yields this year suffered “from high temperatures and extreme drought conditions in many peanut-producing states,” the release noted.

Ken Gad, a partner in Cambridge Farms in South Easton, ME, along with Steve Cohen, told The Produce News that potato tonnage in the western United States is more normal this year, but not huge.

“It’s a more normal crop in terms of tonnage,” he said. “It seems that most areas on the East Coast had some issues with rain. Some areas had enough rain during the growing period, but there were also some washouts. We’d like to be able to store more than we are this year, but the quality of what we have in storage is very good.”

Bob Davis, president of Maine Farmers Exchange in Presque Isle, ME, sees both good and bad quality in Maine’s potato fields this year. The company will be focusing on ensuring only the high-quality product ships.

Rob Wedin

As with the avocado industry as a whole, Calavo Growers Inc.