BC Hot House Foods, a leader in hydroponically grown produce, will start its 40th year in business with a 13-percent increase in production for the 2013 season.

The overall growth is the result of Darvonda Nurseries joining BC Hot House as well as additional acreage from current grower members.

The largest increases will be in sweet Bell peppers and long English cucumber crops starting this spring.

Darvonda brings over 10 acres to BC Hot House as it continue to produce greenhouse cucumbers and tomatoes alongside its core base of floral production.

Eva Dawson, director of sales and food safety for Dawson Farms in Delhi, LA, told The Produce News that the company’s crop is great quality this season. “And we have nice volumes in storage,” she added. “We will be shipping from cured to cured this year.”

Last year, Chadbourn, NC-based Wayne E. Bailey placed an additional focus on its brand names and packaging.

“We pack sweet potatoes for ‘Green Giant Fresh,’ for example,” said George Wooten, president of the company. “Our initial focus was on bulk packs for the label, but we have learned that people want more convenient items, such as three- and five-pound bags, which we now offer with the ‘Green Giant Fresh’ label.”

In late January, Michael Wood, operations manager of J. Roland Wood Farms Inc., in Benson, NC, told The Produce News that the company was currently shipping excellent-quality stored sweet potatoes.

“We will have ample volumes to get us through until the 2013 crop is dug,” said Mr. Wood. “There will not be any green sweet potatoes shipped from here — we’ll be running from cured to cured this year.

“We harvested a nice big crop in 2012,” Jimmy Burch Sr., a partner at Burch Farms LLC in Faison, NC, told The Produce News. “It is selling well and it should last until the 2013 harvest.”

He added that sweet potato production is increasing faster than consumption can keep up with it, despite the hefty increase in demand on both the fresh and the foodservice sides of the business.

Santa Maria, CA-based Sun Coast Farms Sales hired TOMMY MCCLOSKEY as sales manager on Dec. 1.

In his new role, Mr. McCloskey is responsible for managing the company’s sales office in California. He will be handling lettuce, romaine, broccoli, green leaf and red leaf.