Troublesome potato harvest in British Columbia

A soggy September has been a catastrophe for many Lower Mainland (region around Vancouver, BC, Canada) potato and vegetable producers, who are still trying to salvage their crops.

Potatoes sitting in muddy soil go soft, and harvesting equipment gets bogged down in the muck, making it impossible to get the crop out of the ground.

Robert Butler, spokesman for the B.C. Potato and Vegetable Grower's Association, said he grabbed a fresh potato out of the ground recently and easily crushed it with his bare hand.

"Without any effort at all, it's instant mashed potatoes,"he said.

Peter Schouten of Heppell's Potato Corp. has been a farm owner for 17 years in Abbotsford. This is the worst year he has seen.

The largest potato producer in Abbotsford, Schouten plants 750 acres of potatoes on Sumas Prairie. He estimates 30 per cent of it will be lost, at a value of about $2 million, at least.

The producer associations will ask the provincial and federal government for assistance.