BRASELTON, GA -- The Southeast Produce Council celebrated its 10th anniversary the first weekend in November in part by recognizing many of the individuals who have helped make the council a success since it was founded in 1999. Attendees also heard a presentation by consultant Ronnie De La Cruz, whose keynote address looked at how key events over the past 10 years have affected the council and the produce industry in general as well as some issues that may have an important impact over the next 10 years. Board meetings, an opening gala party with entertainment by country music star Sammy

For Adam Wooten, operations manager at his family-owned business, Wayne E. Bailey Co., a major producer of sweet potatoes, a typical workday has him moving through numerous divisions at the company's Chadbourn, GA, facility. "I confer with the receiving manager to make sure product coming into our facility goes into curing rooms according to specifications," said Mr. Wooten. "Then I review logistics to make sure it is on track. There are a lot of trucks arriving at the facility during harvesting." Mr. Wooten also spends a lot of his time with the quality manager on the packingline to ensure

Sweet potato volume in some key Southern production areas is off by as much as 75 percent as a peak demand period approaches. Benny Graves, executive secretary and treasurer of the Mississippi Sweet Potato Council in Mississippi State, MS, said that the state's sweet potato crop is "very, very" short. Overall, we have a 70-75 percent loss, said Mr. Graves. We wont have enough to cover Thanksgiving, and well likely be out of supplies completely before the end of the year. Heavy rains swept through Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee just as harvesting started this

Heavy rains in August and September hampered Florida fall planting, resulting in crops that are coming to market a couple of weeks later and a bit smaller than usual but otherwise unscathed, according to growers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Persistent tropical weather throughout late summer delayed planting and harvesting and resulted in sporadic damage, but most crops are arriving at market now in fair-to-excellent condition, if a bit undersized. The rainfall did not delay just the Florida crop - it moved in a "rainbelt" across parts of Mexico as well, said Chuck Weisinger of Weis

A new brand promotion for Florida-raised produce was kicked off Oct. 29 at a Publix supermarket in the Tropicaire Shopping Center in Miami. The "Redland Raised" promotion is a new initiative that joins the forces of Miami-Dade County, the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners, the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Publix Super Markets and several south Florida producers. Products will carry "Redland Raised" branding in an effort to promote the consumption of fresh, local produce in Florida. The new brand is a collaboration project with the "Fresh From Florida" brand

The Nogales, AZ, produce deal is often thought of primarily as a winter deal out of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. But Sonora, the state immediately north of Sinaloa that borders Arizona, has a heavy production in various commodities during the fall season and was in full swing when The Produce News spoke with some of the distributors in Nogales in early November. Some products from Sinaloa had also begun to arrive. "We've been going for about five weeks" on some items, Bill Spence, sales manager at Sandia Distributing Inc., said Nov. 3. We started early with some watermelons out of Caborca