Idaho grower-shippers ready to meet season’s challenges
Yields are down but sizes are up for Idaho potatoes this year, industry leaders report.
Hot weather during the growing season reduced the number of tubers per plant but made potato sizes larger, Idaho growers said.
All shippers were moving new crop potatoes in October, with a smooth transition reported between old crop and new crop supplies this season.
“Idaho fresh potato crop acreage is up this year; however, the increase was for mainly for process use,” said Dick Thomas, senior vice president of sales for Potandon Produce, Idaho Falls, Idaho. “Yields are projected to be down.”
Fresh potato yields and production could be down as much as 10%, said Joe Esta, vice president of Wada Farms Marketing Group LLC, Idaho Falls.
Speaking at the Idaho Grower Shippers Association 93rd annual convention in early September, Mark Klompien, president and CEO of the United Potato Growers of America, said acreage is expected to be up slightly, but yields will be down for Idaho growers this year.
Klompien said the group’s shipping forecast for the U.S. fresh potato crop is 88 million cwt., 1.9 million cwt. less than the 2020-21 crop.
Idaho is expected to ship about 32 million cwt. of fresh russets, about 1.8 million cwt. down from a year ago and the lowest shipment total in about six years.
Idaho acreage is estimated at 315,000 acres, up 6% from 296,000 a year ago.
However, 2021 yield is projected at 430 cwt. per acre, down 5% from 455 cwt. last year. Total Idaho production is anticipated at 135.45 million cwt., up from 134.5 million cwt. a year ago.
The fresh market is expected to account for 24.7% of the Idaho crop, compared with 27.1% for the fresh market in the 2020-21 season.
At the IGSA meeting in early September, Rick Shawver, CEO of the United Potato Growers of Idaho, said the tuber count for the 2021 Idaho crop is down compared with last year and perhaps the second-lowest average tuber count in the past five years.
The projected lower yields in Idaho of 430 cwt. per acre, down from 455 cwt. per acre last year, could be conservative, he said.
“We should expect some relatively good pricing,” he said.
Challenge met
Growers faced an abnormally warm season, said Ross Johnson, international marketing director for the Idaho Potato Commission.
“We were definitely seeing that the plants were affected,” Johnson said.
While quality was untouched by the heat, the stress on the plants caused them to create fewer tubers compared with a typical year.
Johnson said the potatoes that growers are seeing coming out of the ground are very large.
That plays into the marketing message of the out-sized Big Idaho Potato Truck, but this year the state is seeing even bigger sizes than normal.
“Thankfully, we’ve got so many years of experience behind us that this isn’t something that’s new to us,” Johnson said. “People know and trust the Idaho brand.”
He noted that Idaho has one of the strictest marketing orders in the industry, which requires all the state’s packers to pack their products to a similar standard.
In 32 potato shipping facilities in Idaho, Johnson said the industry has 114 different shipping point inspectors looking at potatoes as they come off the lines.
“It allows (the industry) to really operate and manage and maintain that consistency throughout the process,” Johnson said. “So regardless of the struggle that we’re having, we’re able to manage that appropriately.”
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted many shippers to increase their bagging capacity, which will give them greater flexibility going forward.
Quality first
Johnson said that Idaho shippers are focused on quality, and growers invest more than $1 million per year in research and development. He noted that the Idaho Potato Commission has sponsored a study with the University of Idaho to monitor how Idaho potatoes arrive to their final destination.
“We have been doing things to mitigate any (arrival) issues, and really make the receiving process easier for anybody purchasing potatoes from Idaho,” he said.
