WINNIPEG – Manitoba’s largest potato processor wants to use a commercial freight company to truck all spuds from storage to the plant.
But a spokesperson for the 130 provincial farms that contract with potato processors says there’s some resistance to the idea.
Garry Sloik, a grower and secretary-manager of Keystone Vegetable Producers’ Association, said farmers want to use the trucks and employees in which they have already invested money.
Sloik said more than half of the growers already have insulated tandem trailers for hauling the temperature-sensitive spuds. Other growers who live closer to plants use straight tandems.
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“They would like to keep that equipment busy and keep some of their key people busy in some of the off-season,” Sloik told a recent transportation conference.
The farmers use the same equipment for moving sugar beets, grain and potatoes.
Farmers currently pay for their own transportation, and wonder how much it would cost for a contract trucker, who needs to recover costs and profit.
Phil Suggitt of Midwest Food Products said it costs a farmer between 65 to 70 cents per hundredweight to haul potatoes 180 kilometres from Winkler to the plant in Carberry. With a contract trucker, that may rise by as much as 20 cents per cwt, Suggitt said.
Sloik said some growers have already turned to contract truckers, especially new growers who face massive capital costs for land, irrigation, equipment and storage.
“I think if there was the option to go to contract hauling, that over time, more and more people will do it,” Sloik said.
“It’s just that when you have the equipment, now is not the right time for some people.”
Some like idea
Suggitt said the company worked with a trucker with four climate-controlled trailers this year. Growers who tried the service loved it. Suggitt said one even sold his truck and invested in storage instead.
He said McCain Food Ltd., the other processor in the province, will soon handle as many potatoes as his plant. He thinks they’ll look at changing transportation too.
“I think they’ll maybe see some problems like we’ve seen.”
He explained his company uses a computer system to figure out which of the 240 producers’ bins to draw potatoes from for certain runs. Each bin has potatoes of different sizes, shapes and quality. If one shed has the perfect size of potatoes for a certain length of french fry, Suggitt said the company would like to be able to move all the potatoes in at the same time.
Farmers can only bring in so many loads per day, he said. Some are reluctant to work overnight, on Sundays and during seeding.
