Movement ramps up for MVPG
Movement ramps up for MVPG
A little more than two weeks prior to Thanksgiving, Monte Vista Potato Growers General Manager Jason Tillman said what had been “fairly decent” demand became a full-on Thanksgiving rush.
“We’re packing a lot of potatoes right now,” he said Nov. 10, adding that the market price had weakened a little.
“But we’re going strong, and our quality is very good — we’ve got good stuff coming out of the shed,” he said of the grower cooperative’s russet and yellow volume.
MVPG started its season mid-September, and Tillman said he plans for supplies to run through late July 2016.
Mexico was a big buyer for the 2014-15 season’s russets, and Tillman said, “Right now we’re shipping to Walmart in the Southeast, and about 25-30 percent of our potatoes are going into Mexico. We’re running about the same as we did last year.”
The cooperative offers three-, five-, 10-, 15- and 20-pound bags as well as cartons, 50-pound burlap and 50-pound paper sacks.
In recent years the SCS GlobalGAP-certified shipping facility put in New Tec baggers, and during summer 2015 a new washer-polisher was added.
“Our goal is to make it through July, and then we shut down in August for maintenance,” he said. He added that there are tentative plans for more upgrades before the next harvest.
Following in the footsteps of his father, Steve Tillman, who was general manager of the operation for 22 years, Jason Tillman handles the operation’s sales and sticks to the longstanding — and successful — program.
