Kreis optimistic for red potato market improvement
Kreis optimistic for red potato market improvement
This fall there have been some challenges for red potato shippers in the Red River Valley, but Ted Kreis, marketing director of the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association, foresees improvements in the marketing situation.
On Nov. 12, he said routine competition with Wisconsin growers was keener than usual because of large production in both states. Wisconsin hasn’t adequate storage facilities to move its crop out of the field, so there was a lot of pressure at harvest time to get freshly dug potatoes to market.
Red River Valley growers tend to have more storage, but a record-smashing 2015 volume also pushed those growers onto the market in greater volumes than normal during harvest. “We are past that now,” Kreis added. Furthermore, Wisconsin’s new crop was clearing out of the market, so that competition “is not a long-term problem.”
Another challenge that plagued fall markets was that Quebec red potato shippers were moving volumes with some quality questions at low prices into the U.S. East Coast. This competition was compounded by a weak U.S. dollar.
Kreis expects U.S. retailers will “eventually feel the need to bring their business here because of our good quality. The business will come.”
The northern plains crop is up 24 percent this season, Kreis indicated. The yield per acre in 2015 was 340 hundredweight. This shattered the region’s all-time yield record of 315 hundredweight, which was set in 2014.
“A lot has been made out of the fact that we had a lot of pack out lost to culls,” he said. “But this is our largest fresh crop in years. Yields were extremely high,” so even after grading, the Red River Valley is offering a large volume of potatoes with “very good” quality and great color. Cracked potatoes “are easily culled.”
Kreis equated the production problem of potato cracking to an adolescent growing so fast that his bones hurt. This growing season, a dry period was followed by “a good shot of rain” in the valley, causing rapid growth and the cracking.
Kreis emphasized the red potatoes that are passing grade are of great quality, and the region’s volume will match 2014.
Yellow potatoes from the Red River Valley will be double 2014’s volume because of high yields and increased acreage. The yellow potato volume is only about 10 percent of the reds.
