Potato growers, alarmed by what one describes as hemorrhaging losses in their industry, are cutting acres to better manage spud supplies in North America.
Growers in Prince Edward Island and Idaho are among those most eager to bring potato supplies in line with demand, sharply reduced by the popularity of low carb diets.
They are doing things they have never before tried.
Growers have committed to contracts with the P.E.I. Potato Board that roll back potato production by 9,500 acres this year. Growers will be paid $200 for each acre they remove. The levy all growers paid to the board was doubled to provide money to those participating in the no-grow plan.
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“The growers have really bought into this,” said Ivan Noonan, general manager of the P.E.I. Potato Board.
“Not everybody was in favour of it, but they agreed that the status quo wasn’t working and we needed to try something.”
Last year P.E.I. planted 106,000 acres of potatoes, so the planned reduction this spring was significant.
Noonan said one challenge was convincing growers in his province to scale back production without an assurance that similar steps would be taken elsewhere. That concern was alleviated by activities in the United States.
Growers in Idaho have committed to efforts this year that should result in fewer acres being planted and surplus potatoes being diverted from the market.
United Fresh Potato Growers of Idaho, for example, has started a program to use surplus spuds as cattle feed. Another alternative is to dump potatoes on fields.
At the same time, growers are working co-operatively to keep the acreage devoted to fresh potatoes more in line with anticipated demand.
The main incentive for producers to participate is the anticipation of better prices. So far the effort is aimed mainly at fresh potatoes, but seed potatoes are being included as well.
“It’s coming along very well,” said Michael Leavitt of United Fresh Potato Growers of Idaho. “We’ve been able to increase our prices just a little bit so far, so everybody is pretty optimistic.”
Earlier this spring, the Idaho group announced it was buying 3.4 million hundredweight of potatoes, to be sold to the U.S. Department of Agriculture or diverted elsewhere.
The purchase was in addition to the 3.8 million cwt. that members of the co-operative had either disposed of or were committed to dumping by June 1.
One of the challenges, said Leavitt, is ensuring that there are not growers “riding on the coattails” of effort, reaping the price benefit without cutting production.
“We’re still dealing with some of those issues.”
Leavitt said interest in their effort is spreading to other potato growing areas of the U.S. The United Potato Growers of America was established to lead co-operation on that front.
Earlier this year, United Potato Growers of Idaho issued a news release describing the progress of its efforts. The organization promised buyers that spuds would be consistent and fairly priced, but chair Albert Wada underlined the need for better prices for producers.
“Our growing industry has been hemorrhaging losses,” Wada said. “All we want to do is to work together as United to rationally manage grower losses and turn our industry around to one that is financially stable and consistently profitable.”
Potato acreage in Western Canada is also down, due mainly to processors cutting production contracts.
Manitoba’s potato area is estimated at about 85,000 acres, down about 20 percent from last year, after McCain Foods in Carberry scaled back its needs. Alberta production contracts were also in line with processor needs.
