The cost to Saskatchewan taxpayers of the Lake Diefenbaker Potato Corporation bankruptcy is known but now there are figures about the toll it took on the province’s potato growers.
Agriculture Canada’s horticulture and special crops division has released its report on how the potato industry fared in 1999.
While Canada’s potato-related farm cash receipts are up 16 percent from 1998, for Saskatchewan growers they are down 20 percent. It’s the only potato-producing province that saw its tuber revenue drop last year.
“It was the Lake Diefenbaker mess that might have really buggered up the numbers,” said Frank Gatto, president of the Alberta-based potato processor Pak-Wel Produce.
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“Saskatchewan was a victim of a wild idea that kind of went crazy.”
Manitoba producers derived $121 million from the potatoes they produced in 1999, up 15 percent from 1998’s totals. The province ranked second behind Prince Edward Island, which still dominates the potato industry with $195 million in potato-related cash receipts.
Alberta up, Sask. down
Alberta’s potato growers generated $77 million, which is 20 percent higher than the previous year’s cash receipts. Saskatchewan’s potato receipts dropped from $34 million to $27 million.
British Columbia’s growers experienced the highest rate of growth with a 54 percent increase in revenues, jumping from $26 million in 1998 to $40 million in 1999.
But for the 1999-2000 crop year, Alberta was the only province that experienced substantial growth in potato production.
Potato output in the province shot up 29 percent from 431,000 tonnes in the 1998-1999 crop year to an estimated 556,000 tonnes this year. Saskatchewan’s production fell 44 percent during that same period, dropping to 159,000 tonnes.
The addition of two new french fry plants in Alberta is the reason its production numbers rose while production for the country as a whole dropped. Lamb-Weston began operating its plant near Taber in 1999 and McCain opened its Coaldale facility earlier this year.
“These plants are huge – they’re world-scale operations,” said Gatto.
Canadian xports of frozen fries rose 18.5 percent from 483,400 tonnes in 1998 to 573,400 tonnes in 1999. The value of those exports amounted to $566 million, a 23 percent increase from 1998’s $461 million in fry exports.
Exports of table and seed potatoes fell last year. Combined they dropped 11 percent from 625,800 tonnes in 1998 to 554,400 tonnes in 1999.
Prices for seed and table potatoes improved slightly in 1999.
