SouthWind Farms, based in Heyburn, is exporting fresh potatoes to the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada and Malaysia. According to partner Jerry Tominaga, they grow around 700 acres commercially.
What it exports: SouthWind grows fingerlings and round “marbles,” or baby potatoes. The specialty potatoes come in yellow, red, purple and white. “We are a grower, packer and shipper,” Tominaga said.
Potato planting begins around April 1 and harvest around Aug. 1. The potatoes are typically 2 to 4 1/2 inches long, but SouthWind also sells “minis” that are 1 3/4 inches or smaller.
“We have been shipping indirectly or directly to supermarkets and exporters,” Tominaga said.
Shipments from the farm take three to four weeks to reach their destinations.
The export effort: SouthWind is in its 18th crop, but the company has been doing foreign exports for only about two years; last year was its first full season exporting.
The ball started rolling several years ago when the company applied for a grant and went on a trade mission to Taiwan through the Western U.S. Agricultural Trade Association, an organization of the western states’ departments of agriculture.
Through a combination of that and other trade missions, and the right timing, foreign exports got underway. Tominaga said the company took a “shotgun approach” by making various contracts in different countries.
The trends: “Domestically, the potato consumption is actually going down, but internationally, it’s going up,” he said.
In the Asian market, colored potatoes are beginning to generate interest.
So far this year, he said, there’s been tremendous interest from other countries in his products. Tominaga anticipates exports to at least double. Currently, foreign exports account for only about 1 percent of his business.
The exporters SouthWind works with are California-based Sun Fresh Export and Idaho-based Wada Farms Market Group and Wilcox Marketing Group.
