With consumers continuing to crave sweet onions, Barry Rogers is only too happy to comply. “Sweet onions have been a consumer favorite for a long time,” the president and chief executive officer of Sweet Onion Trading said Nov. 21. “But most consumers seem unaware that sweet onions are available all year. We have other varieties available upon special request, but our company’s primary focus is sweet onions. We don’t just say our onions are sweet. They are flavor-profiled and certified by an independent firm as to their flavor profiles.”

Several new potato varieties being offered by Culinary Specialty Produce have received strong feedback and currently are among the more popular items in the company’s lineup.

Richard Leibowitz, general manager of the Mountainside, NJ-based company, said that the firm’s proprietary Rockey Rose, Merlot and Red Rebel varieties have garnered strong response from consumers due to their excellent flavor.

Ken Gray, vice president of sales and marketing for the Bushwick Commission in Farmingdale, NY, told The Produce News that the company continues its focus on offering customers potatoes that have traveled the least amount of miles, are of high quality, offer retailers value and provide the savings that today’s consumers are seeking.

George Wooten, president of Wayne E. Bailey Produce Co. in Chadbourn, NC, shared his exhilaration Nov. 23 over the strong Thanksgiving business the company had done. He was looking forward to sitting down at his own family Thanksgiving dinner the following day.

“Our family has a treasure trove of great sweet potato recipes,” he said.

Mr. Wooten said that Thanksgiving for his family always includes extra thanks for the sweet potato harvest.

“We had an outstanding Thanksgiving season,” he said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had as good a year.”

Black Gold Farms expanded its product volume in 2011 with the addition of red potatoes grown in the Red River Valley.

The company’s headquarters are located in Grand Forks, ND, approximately 30 miles south of Forest River, ND. Operations have expanded significantly outside the boundaries of North Dakota and today incorporate Texas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, North Carolina, Maryland, Indiana and Michigan.

For the past three years, the Nogales, AZ, branch office of Monterey, CA-based Sun Crest-Bollinger International Inc., here, was housed in an office with no warehouse facility, according to Vince Silva, who handles sales for the company’s Nogales operation.

That has changed. The company has relocated its Nogales office to a facility in the Rio Rico Industrial Park that consists of warehouse space in addition to office space. “That is going to work for us a whole lot better,” Mr. Silva said Nov. 8 to The Produce News.