Colorado, where potatoes are the No. 1 produce item in terms of volume and dollar value, ranks at or near the top of the nation’s fresh-market spud producers, said Marilyn Bay, executive director of the Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.
The state produces more than 70 varieties of potatoes, many of which undergo evaluation at the Colorado State University research farm prior to being released for public consumption, said Jessica Crowther, assistant director of the Monte Vista-based Colorado Potato Administration Committee.
Growers produce russets, reds, yellows, fingerlings and other varieties.
The most popular selections are the new Reveille variety from Texas A&M University, russets, norkotahs and the purple majesty, which is purple inside and out, Crowther said.
“It’s a really delicious potato,” she said.
Volume this season is expected to be about 14.8 hundredweight, about the same as last year.
Acreage is down a couple of thousand acres because some growers cut back on planting, Crowther said. However, a lot of early rain and warm days should boost volume.
Colorado’s organic potato growers produce about 381,000 hundredweight.
Monte Vista, Colo.-based Farm Fresh Direct of America launched its late-summer crop of yellow and russet potatoes Aug. 19, about the same time as usual, said Cindy Adkins, director of sales.
“Quality on the golds and quality on the russets look very, very promising,” she said.
The russets will be a bit larger than usual. About 15% typically weigh more than 10-ounces, but that figure will top 25% this year.
“We’re thrilled to have a little bit larger size on the late-summer crop,” she said.
Harvesting of the company’s fall crop should start Sept. 10 and continue until early October.
Farm Fresh Direct of America ships conventional yellow and russet potatoes year-round, and this year it is offering organic red, gold and russet potatoes year-round with some help from sourcing partners. Overall yields should be up slightly this year, Adkins said.
Lenz Family Farms in Wray, Colo., planned to kick off its 2024 harvest the last week of August, said owner Bevan Lenz.
The 50-year-old company grows yellow-flesh potatoes and expected to have the same volume as last year.
Weather in the region has been “normal,” Lenz said.
“It’s been cool at times and hot at times, but average overall,” he said.
The company ships from August through February and will harvest until mid-October.
The tubers were expected to start out small but likely will have a good size profile when the storage crop begins to ship, he said.
Lenz Family Farms ships primarily to customers in the southern part of the U.S.
Farm Fresh Direct of America is undergoing a rebranding program and making a number of on-site improvements this summer, Adkins said. The rebranding effort will include new, “eye-popping” packaging for its Growers Reserve brand in the fall, she said.
“The bags feature an artistic edginess,” Adkins said. “They bring a lot of color to the traditional potato shelf that is typically brown.”
The rebranding of the label that was created in 2009 will be “a continuation of the company’s legacy with a renewed vigor and renewed innovation,” she said.
The company also is in the process of upgrading equipment in one of its packing sheds and is creating a new website.
Costs of some inputs have continued to rise for potato growers, but they have been offset somewhat by drops in other costs, Lenz said. An exception is labor.
“Labor has been going up every year with inflation,” he said. “Colorado has tied their minimum wage every year to inflation, so goes it up every year now.”
Labor costs have almost doubled over the past eight years, he said. But Lenz Family Farms has been doing “OK.”
“We try to be more efficient and get more hundredweight per hour through the shed to reduce the costs,” Lenz said.
Adkins said finding adequate labor can be a challenge.
“We struggle even at higher costs filling our labor pool,” she said.
As the potato harvest gets underway, the Colorado Potato Administration Committee helps kick things off with a mostly free community event over the Labor Day weekend featuring food, crafts, bounce houses and other activities for kids at a local park, Crowther said.
“It’s a fun way to celebrate our community and give back to them and also celebrate the potato industry and the potato harvest,” she said.
