The U.S. Sweet Potato Council, along with growers, marketers and state-based organizations, has a lot to be happy about these days. Sweet potato demand has grown by approximately 20 percent per year for the past several years. Hardly a day goes by that sweet potatoes aren’t popping up in front of consumers’ faces in food magazines, cookbooks and on television shows. And the more scientific research that is done on sweet potatoes, the more good news surfaces about its nearly miraculous benefits.

Benny Graves, executive director of the Vardaman, MS-based Mississippi Sweet Potato Council, told The Produce News that growers in the state started harvesting in August and were between 25 and 30 percent into the crop in mid-September.

“We have some good-looking potatoes coming out,” said Mr. Graves. “There are a couple of isolated spots that got a little too much moisture, but they are minimal, and overall we have some of the best shapes and qualities that I’ve seen in a while.”

The Atlanta State Farmers Market had its origins in Atlanta’s West End in 1939 before moving to the current facility in 1959. In the intervening decades it has sprawled into a 150-acre hub of commerce and transportation so busy it has its own supermarket, restaurants, visitors’ center, gift shop and police force.

Heading into its sixth full citrus season, Lone Star Citrus in Mission, TX, has plenty to celebrate. In short order the company has become one of the state’s top providers of citrus. The company recently inked a deal to be the exclusive provider of Texas grapefruit for Sunkist. And this season, Lone Star will mark a major milestone when it harvests the first fruit from the first trees planted in its own groves five-and-a-half years ago.

The latter is a particular source of pride for the company.

Started with a 20-acre grove and a Missouri businessman’s curiosity, Rio Queen Citrus Inc. in Mission, TX, has over the last half-century become one of the larger grower-shippers of citrus in the Lone Star State. This year, the firm is set up for an excellent citrus season thanks to terrific weather and an early end to the California citrus season.

FOREST PARK, GA — What marks the difference between a good year and a great year? How about a 25 percent increase in business, which is what the Nickey Gregory Co. LLC posted over the last 12 months?