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Southwind is Growing

Recent growth here at Southwind Farms, should make us the nation’s second largest supplier of fingerling potatoes this season. Nonetheless, while Idaho fingerling potatoes have grown in popularity they still are a niche specialty potato and would be impractical to ship through traditional means.

Our approach at Southwind is a unique sales strategy. We very rarely can fill an entire load with just fingerling potatoes. What we have done to resolve shipping issues is partner directly with Wada Farms Marketing Group, Potandon Produce, Wilcox Fresh and Sun-Glo of Idaho, who stick a few pallets of the specialty potatoes in with customers’ Russet shipments.

Kevin Stanger, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Wada Farms, said “It’s been a very good marriage,” Stanger said. “We can supply our customers kind of a full gamut of product.”

Frank Muir, president and CEO of the Idaho Potato Commission, said fingerlings and other specialty varieties fill a critical need, though they represent less than 5 percent of the Idaho potato market. For the past nine years, Muir said he’s been pushing Idaho to become more than just a Russet state.

“We’re well known for our Russets, but we believe we can leverage our famous Russet to expand our potato portfolio,” Muir said. “Our objective was not to have every Idaho grower growing specialty varieties. We just needed enough so we could become a one-stop shop state for all potato varieties.”

Muir considers the partnerships between Southwind and fresh-pack facilities to be “a smart way of working together, and that’s what we’ve encouraged the industry to do in Idaho.”

We are very excited for what the future has in store and look forward to creating more alliances with produce shippers all over the United States. Feel free to contact us with any questions.

For more information about Southwind Products, check out our full list of fingerling potatoes

Source: Capital Press