Cambridge Farms’ Eastern Shore potato deal looks better than average
By
Chris Koger
Cambridge Farms’ Eastern Shore potato deal looks better than average
As the East Coast potato harvest works its way north from Florida, Cambridge Farms anticipates the Camden-Elizabeth City, NC, potato harvest to start on time, around June 15.
Soon after, Eastern Shore harvest will begin, and Easton, MA-based Cambridge Farms is forecasting a steady crop. Despite a lack of rain, the growers Cambridge Farms partners with have their crops under irrigation, although natural precipitation provides better ground saturation.
“What people forget about irrigation, is that you can lay an inch of water down on the ground, but if it’s sunny, you’re only getting half of that,” said Ken Gad, president and CEO. “When it rains, it’s overcast and the ground has time to absorb it. There’s no sun baking the moisture off.”
An early report from their largest North Carolina farming partner with is positive.
“They feel the crop has progressed well and are looking forward to a June 15 start,” Gad said in late May. “Their test digs are already showing 60 percent size A or better, which is what you want at this point. So they’re happy with what they’re seeing with their crop, and I think that’s what we’re going to see mirrored up the Virginia Eastern Shore.”
Gad said he expects some variances on yields and sizes from field to field — which is normal.
“Right now, I think we’re going to have a better than average crop,” said Gad, who’s entering his 43rd summer of the East Coast deal. “We’ve had really good quality in Florida, and whatever the trend in Florida is, typically runs its way up the East Coast.”
Ken’s son, Jay Gad, is “carrying on the torch” and serves as vice president and director of business development at Cambridge Farms.
“Business to this point (this season) has been brisk. The returns to the grower have been good and I see no reason we won’t carry the trend of volume and market strength right up on through the Eastern Shore,” Ken Gad said.
Cambridge Farms markets potatoes throughout the year, with partnerships across growing regions to maintain supplies. Gad said Eastern Shore growers have cut back on their russet production this summer, following a large Idaho storage carryover.
On the East Coast, the demand for white potatoes has declined sharply over the years, although there are loyal customers in the Northeast. Eastern Shore growers have also increased yellow acres and dropped red potato plantings.
“Some areas are still known for their red quality, but you can’t fight the increase in yellow demand nationwide. And because of that, we’ve planted fewer reds and fewer whites,” Gad said.
“We always hope that we don’t get to a point where we overproduce yellows and get a glut of those, but we haven’t seen it yet,” he said. “We grew more yellows in Florida than ever before. It used to be in Hastings, it was all reds.”
Cambridge Farms recently lost longtime employee Brad Johnson, of Presque Isle, ME. Johnson, 70, passed away on May1. He came from a potato farming family that grew and sold seed potatoes and he later became a potato broker.
According to his obituary, after transitioning from farming, Johnson became well known throughout Aroostook County, ME, as a respected potato broker for 30 years.
For more than 20 years, he worked with Cambridge Farms, leading its Presque Isle sales office.
“He handled our seed program and he was just a very friendly, good-hearted guy from Maine who enjoyed his job, enjoyed working in the industry,” Gad said.
“He’ll certainly be missed by the growers up and down the coast, from Maine to Florida.”
