Good quality, shortfall in other areas could bode well for Colorado spuds
Good quality, shortfall in other areas could bode well for Colorado spuds
Jim Ehrlich, executive director of the Colorado Potato Administrative Committee, said a marketplace shortage of cartons has reflected in the price of potatoes this shipping season, and given that “our quality is probably the best in the industry year-in and year-out,” Colorado could have an advantage with volume.
“The way it's working out, it could be a better year for Colorado,” Ehrlich said in early January.
Both the San Luis Valley and its watershed mountains had snow during the first weeks of the new year, but the snowpack in the Upper Rio Grande was at recorded at 65 percent of median.
Colorado's San Luis Valley potato acreage was up 8 percent in 2014 to 53,700 over 2013's 49,700 acres. The region also had a better growing season, although summer hail did affect an estimated 800 acres significantly and another 3,000 acres to a lesser extent. Yields were better in 2014, which resulted in increased volumes.
Prices posted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Jan. 12 showed 50-pound cartons of russet 40s at $11.25 out of Colorado and between $14.25 and $15 out of Idaho.
Mexico is one of Colorado's primary markets, and CPAC received a block grant to research how best to approach that market from both retail and foodservice angles. The reversal of a 2014 decision allowing access to the entire country to a previously designated 26-kilometer buffer zone has not hindered further research, and Ehrlich said work being done will “provide a better understanding of what the Mexican consumer wants.”
He said continuing the study is “the best way to approach [the market] from a sales point of view,” and to that end a Mexican marketing specialist is working with CPAC and the USDA on the matter. Ehrlich said ongoing trade missions are also within the grant's research purview.
Another grant involves the purchase of specialized research equipment that provides real-time PCR analysis, targeting potato virus Y and N strains.
Ehrlich said, “The idea is to have a machine that works for seed and commercial, allowing us to pre-screen shipments to Mexico so we can ship with a much higher level of confidence.”
He also noted that although the buffer zone limitations were reinstated, Colorado lost little if any ground.
“Our shipments to Mexico have stayed at the same level they were when the interior was open,” he said.
Total shipments of potatoes out of the San Luis Valley through December 2014 matched closely the number of the previous year, with 10,579 loads having gone out as of the end of the year 2014 compared to 10,529 in 2013. Truck shipments of fresh were at 2,654, up from 2,614 the previous year.
