10/17/08 Washington potatoes being promoted at "Fresh Summit"

Farm and Ranch October 17, 2008 The Produce Marketing Association's Fresh Summit being held in Orlando, Florida is the largest produce industry trade show in the United States, and Washington potatoes will be there. Matt Harris, Director of Trade for the Washington State Potato Commission, says a pavilion at the Fresh Summit will highlight Washington state produce. Harris: "We are focusing on fresh potatoes from Washington state, Walla Walla Sweet Onions, asparagus and fresh onions from our region." The Fresh Summit gets underway next Friday, October 24th in Orlando. Harris: "This 3-day event will bring in close to 20-thousand buyers from across the nation and foreign interests and hopefully what we will be able to do is market to those folks and be able to promote and educate buyers about the quality of Washington state potatoes." Potential buyers won't just see Washington produce, they will be able to taste it, as an executive chef from Orlando will be at the Washington pavilion demonstrating some new recipes. Harris: "And so we have some great fresh potato recipes we will be demonstrating. Also we will have some great fresh asparagus recipes and sweet onion recipes, which are quite interesting." Harris says one area they may see more buying interest at the show this year is from Europe. That's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report. Brought to you in part by the Washington State Potato Commission. Nutrition today! Good health tomorrow! I'm Bob Hoff on the Northwest Ag Information Network.