“The weather has been ideal, with warm days and cool nights — exactly the conditions potato plants like,” said Derek Peterson, vice president of sales and operations at Wilcox. “Often, we get excessive heat in July, and that can affect the growing cycle. This year, we didn’t get that extreme heat so there was little stress on the plants.”

Peterson said the good weather conditions resulted in an early start for the potato crop, but he expects yields to be along recent trend lines and quality to be exceptional.

Regarding sizing, Peterson said there would be a variety of sizes that will be suitable for both retail and foodservice.

“The early Norkotahs really showed good sizing this year, and that supports the retail market,” he said, “but we’ll also have good sizes for the foodservice market as well.”

Wilcox, a longtime grower of Russet potatoes, is now also a leading provider of fingerling and specialty potatoes following the acquisition of Southwind Farms three years ago. Peterson said that division is performing extremely well and has added some excitement to its business.

The fingerling crop also benefited from the good weather conditions this summer, and “we’re expecting good yields and exceptional quality on those as well,” he said.

Peterson added that the Southwind line will increase this year with a wider variety of mini gourmet potatoes, including two new varieties that will hit the market this year. The new varieties will be featured in the medley packs and baby round yellow bags for retail.

“We’ve been promoting these for the better part of last year, but we’ll be pushing them more this year,” said Peterson. “We’ve made some upgrades with machinery and equipment for the Southwind line, and so we’re ready.”

Other changes include an infusion of new faces in the sales department, according to Peterson, who noted that Jenna Owens and Cole Huntsman both joined the company about a year-and-a-half ago.

“Jenna works in our Southwind division and Cole works from our Rexburg office, and both are doing extremely well,” said Peterson. “Overall, our sales group is young, eager and energetic, but we have some veterans on board to help guide them. We really do have a great group of people.”

Peterson added that the Wilcox team was saddened by the passing this summer of Gary Treasure, who worked at Wilcox for more than 20 years before retiring two years ago.

“Gary was a valued member of our staff for many years, and even though he retired two years ago we were still in close contact and he even did some work for us on occasion,” said Peterson.