Potato harvest winds down

Profits vary for fresh market, processed potatoes

MOSES LAKE - Potato harvest is winding down in the Columbia Basin this week, with contracted growers reporting decreased profits and fresh market prices more than doubling from last year.

Fresh market prices for Russet Norkotahs increased last year from between $4.75 to $5 per 10-pound sack to this year's price of $10.50 per sack, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics.

But due to increased production prices, profit margins are thin for the majority of area farmers who sell their potatoes to processors through contracts, said Dale Lathim, executive director of the Potato Growers of Washington.

Lathim's Othello-based group negotiates all of the processed potato contracts in the Columbia Basin and provides other grower services.

Contracted prices aren't publicly available because the information is proprietary, he confirmed.

But it's safe to say those growers are making less money because of the higher production costs, he explained.

Every operation is different, Lathim said. Some farms are

highly efficient and will make money, just not as much as last year, he said.

So it's difficult to place an overall percentage on decreased profits, Lathim said.

Increased costs for diesel fuel, fertilizer, labor and land contributed to the decreased returns for contracted growers, Lathim noted.

In some cases, the cost of leased ground rose by as much as 50 percent over the year, he said.

"It's hard to find an input we use that isn't up by 25 to 50 percent," Lathim said.

Land prices increased because of competition from other crops, such as wheat, corn and alfalfa, he said. There's more wheat planted because of the world market on grains, Lathim said.

When growers can make more money with other crops, they chose to do so, he explained.

Harvest has gone very well this year, Lathim noted. The spring was cooler than normal and the crop was off to a later start.

He termed this year's product as an "exceptionally high-quality crop."

"More than likely, the cold temperature won't get cold enough to freeze a potato," he said. "We don't have a high degree of concern over the frost, unless it was down in the teens."

The recent stock market fluctuations likely won't affect growers' abilities to sell their product, he said.

"No matter what happens with the economy, people need to eat," Lathim said. "We don't see any impact on that."

Berend Friehe's Moses Lake potato operations grows Umatilla Russets and Russet Burbanks.

Friehe's farm is a top grower for food processor McCain Foods, said the operation's agronomist Pascal Bolduc. The farm received champion grower awards from 1993 to 2006 and second and third-place awards during non-champion years, he added.

The operation grows one crop of potato every four years per field and rotates other crops, he said. During off potato years, wheat, sweet corn, blue grass for seed, timothy and alfalfa are grown.

Bolduc said the crop yield appears to have decreased by 9.5 percent from last year.

That translates to 80 million servings of French fries, he said.

Bolduc said the farm lost three weeks in the growing season and mentioned the increased fertilizer prices as factors.

Land also became "really expensive" with people deciding to change from growing potatoes to wheat crops, he said. So the farm has more opportunity for contracts than acres, Bolduc added.

"We still have the quality," he said. "We just don't have the quantity."

Quality incentives for the potatoes can add money or take it away, Bolduc said.

"We don't know how it all ends up," Bolduc noted. "We won't know until all the potatoes come through. We won't know until the spring or summer."