Huge Crop Drops Price Of Potatoes

For a year that began with a hot potato market, things have really gone cold.

A bumper crop has sent prices crashing, causing Washington and Idaho growers of baking and french fry spuds to wonder when it’s going to hit bottom.

But what’s bad for growers may be good for consumers, who could enjoy the best supermarket prices in years if food brokers and grocers pass on the savings.

“There’s ample supplies so go reap the benefits at your local store,” urged Henry Michael, administrator of the Washington Potato Commission, a Moses Lake-based promoter of spud sales and research.

Spuds farmers sold to packers and processors for 9 cents a pound a year ago were fetching as little as 1.5 cents per pound on Monday.

Some Spokane grocery stores are advertising fresh potatoes for 33 cents a pound.

Analysts said Washington and Idaho farmers dug a record spud crop and have only themselves to blame for falling prices.

“We haven’t seen these prices since the mid-70s,” said Bert Moulton, a division manager for the 800-member Potato Growers of Idaho in Blackfoot. “There will be a few people going out of business if they didn’t save enough from last year.”

Moulton said farmers need about 5 cents a pound ($5 per 100-pound bag in Idaho; $100 per ton in Washington) to cover their cost of production. Anything less and they’re losing money, he said.

With prices steady last winter, the Potato Growers of Washington persuaded french fry processors in the Columbia River Basin to raise their pre-season contracted price from $88 to $95 per ton or more.

But only about half the state’s farmers participated in the association’s collective bargaining. The rest negotiated their own contract, or decided to take their chances in the open market after harvest.

Washington growers produced 4.51 million tons of potatoes in 1996, breaking the state’s previous record of 4.45 million tons set in 1994.

A record 7 million tons was harvested in Idaho, surpassing the previous record of 6.94 million tons in 1994.

Those crops contributed to a record 14.6 million tons of potatoes sitting in storage as of Dec. 16, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But companies that make french fries, potato chips and hash browns are using up the supplies faster than ever, the department said.

“We can play this up as a disaster, but I don’t think it’s quite that bad,” said Greg Richardson, a Quincy, Wash., farmer and president of the Washington Potato Growers. “The fry demand seems to be on a continuous rise so I think we’ll end up with a crop that’s manageable.”

, DataTimes