Idaho potato growers have banded together like never before through the United Potato Growers of Idaho to try to boost their profits in 2010. The Idaho Falls-based cooperative of spud growers successfully hiked its membership this year to 80 percent of fresh potato acres in Idaho to better affect markets, said United board member Jeff Raybould, of St. Anthony.
Participation had dropped below that figure since the co-op formed five years ago. “To be effective in managing the supply in the fresh sector in the potato industry ... we felt like we need to be at 80 percent,” he said.
United sought the increased participation to help boost prices, which currently sit at about half the $7 per hundredweight sack cost of production, he said.
That's a change from 2008, which started with record high prices, he said. Early marketers did well, though prices trailed off toward the end of the year as the economic downturn took hold. He said the recession reduced the number of table potatoes sold at food service outlets.
So for 2010, United plans to ask its members to reduce their planted acreage by 25-30 percent from their 2004 acreage. The board will determine the exact amount of request later, once it has a better idea of the carryover supplies from 2009, he said.
