Idaho Potato Commission hosts buyer visits

Buyers got to witness Idaho potato growers in action in early October, said Ross Johnson, vice president of retail and international for the Idaho Potato Commission.

They also enjoyed seeing harvest with 70 degrees Fahrenheit weather, perfect conditions for getting potatoes out of the ground and hosting retail and foodservice buyers, Johnson said.

“Last year, when [buyers] came out to the harvest, we were having freezing rains, and it was cold and windy,” he said. “We were feeling guilty having them out there; this year, everyone is in T-shirts.”

The hosted trip allows buyers an opportunity to appreciate all that our farmers do, Johnson said.

“We’re able to get them out in the field and just see the actual operation to understand what growers go through,” he said. For example, this year growers had to deal with an extremely wet spring that caused some center-pivot irrigation systems to be stuck in the mud. To get those pivot system wheels unstuck, growers had to put hay down in the tracks so the wheels could find traction and operate as they should.

One of the growers the buyers visited shared with the group that the electricity alone to pump water from his well to irrigate his crops costs $40,000 a month, Johnson said.

Hearing firsthand stories like that, Johnson said, gives buyers a different appreciation of what growers go through on a daily basis, and not just a narrow mindset of the market.

The tour brought both retail and foodservice buyers to Idaho farms.

“It is just really fun to be able to get them out here and help them see the magic, to peek under the curtain,” he said.