2010 was a ‘pretty good year’ for potato industry, experts say

By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
    PRESQUE ISLE – Officials with the Maine Potato Board called 2010 a “pretty good year” for the industry.
    “Growers planted about 55,500 acres of potatoes, and we ended up with a quality crop,” said Don Flannery, executive director of the board. “Some of the earlier varieties fared a little better on yield than some of the later ones, but overall we had an average yield of high quality.
    “For every acre of potatoes that we had out there,” he said, “we harvested 280 hundredweight off of it. That’s based on USDA numbers, which we use for consistency.”
    Recognizing that there aren’t a lot of potatoes in North America, Flannery said the prices for potatoes are “decent.”
    “I don’t see anything out there that’s going to put any downward pressure on the marketplace,” he said.
    In terms of fresh potatoes, or potatoes that go into the supermarkets, Flannery said the state ships “far more round white potatoes than russets.”
    “If you look at the market across the United States, russets have more of a market share than round whites,” he said. “Many of the areas that supply a lot of the country are from the Pacific Northwest, Idaho and Washington, and they raise mostly russets. Round white potatoes are more predominant on the East Coast than they are in the central and western part of the country. It’s market driven.
    “For the fresh market, we sell more round whites, but if you look at Maine’s acreage, 65 percent of our acres are going to some type of processing and about another 20 percent is going to seed,” said Flannery. “The smallest part of our industry is now fresh potatoes.”
    Weather last year made for an early spring, which allowed growers to get the crop in early.
    “We had optimal growing conditions until the first part of August,” said Flannery, “and then it started to get extremely dry. The earlier potatoes – the ones that don’t take as many days to grow – weren’t affected by yield as the later season ones. The dry conditions probably took some of our yields away, but it didn’t take anything away from quality. You need moisture in August for the potatoes to grow.”
    Late blight wasn’t an issue in 2010 as it has been in the past.
    “Growers were very astute in making sure that any inoculums that may be out there was taken care of,” Flannery said, “however, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”
    Looking ahead to this year’s growing season, Flannery is optimistic that acreage will be relatively the same throughout the state.
    “Acreage is going down, but it’s no longer just a Maine issue,” he said. “Acreage is going down in other parts of the country, as well.
    “In 2005, for example, Maine acreage was 57,500, but over the last three years there’s been relatively no changes. We’re one of the few fall potato producing states that can make that claim; most of the states have gone down,” said Flannery, noting that of the 55,500 acres that were planted last year, at least 90 percent came from Aroostook County.