It’s expensive to ship potatoes.
The tubers are mostly water and most growers cluster near processors or local grocery markets to avoid prohibitive trucking fees. With a big heavy bag of table potatoes selling for just a few dollars, transportation is the big impediment to exports.
But Peak Of The Market has just signed a deal to ship one million pounds of red potatoes and carrots to Texas, a distant market that generally doesn’t buy a lot of Canadian potatoes.
The Manitoba producer group does this profitably by taking advantage of a prairie disadvantage, said Peak general manager Larry McIntosh.
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“We look for opportunities,” said McIntosh, who was part of a trade mission to Texas and California.
“That’s what we’re building our business on.”
Texas produces most of its own potatoes and carrots, selling them right off the harvester because of little storage in the state.
That means there often aren’t enough potatoes and carrots left later in the season and buyers have to search for supplies, McIntosh said.
They often go as far as California and Washington state.
Manitoba doesn’t have the luxury of selling its entire vegetable harvest during harvest. As well, harsh Canadian winters have forced Manitoba vegetable producers to build expensive all-season storage facilities.
As a result, Manitoba producers often have vegetable supplies sitting in storage when the rest of the big supplying regions are almost out.
Manitoba vegetables are also high quality, which means prices are high enough to justify shipping them to distant markets.
McIntosh said the million-pound deal will more than triple the usual annual sales to Texas.
