Frost impacts frying colour potatoes PEI

As potatoes began rolling in to the two processing plants in Price Edward Island this fall, it became relatively easy to determine when they were harvested.

Maybe not the exact date, but at least whether they hit the warehouse before the first of a series of heavy frosts which began in late October. Heavy rains in October pushed the harvest on many farms past Remembrance Day.

"We're finding a big difference between what was dug before the frost and what came after,"says Gordon Campbell, manager of the McCain's plant in Borden-Carleton, at the recent annual meeting of the P.E.I. Potato Board.

His comments were echoed by Dwayne McNeill, who looks after raw product buying at the Cavendish Farms plant in New Annan. He told the meeting: "The stuff dug in late October is almost black in colour."

Terry Curley of Monaghan Farms says his company is finding the same thing. He sells much of his product for the production of potato chips in markets as close as Nova Scotia and as far away as Southeast Asia.

He says there are no colour issues with everything harvested before the frost.

All three men are confident the situation can still be turned around with proper storage. McNeill says the problem is caused by too much sugar in the spuds. Heat control in storage can bring the levels down.

"Hopefully the colour will return over the next few months,"Campbell adds.

Curley says he has been through a similar situation before and in that instance, proper ventilation and temperature control corrected the problem. He says he was "cautiously optimistic"the same thing would happen this year.