This column appears in the August 2020 issue of Potato Grower.
Who do you know that does not want tomorrow to be better than today? Raise your hand if you are content to leave things the way they are and not do your part to make life better. If everyone had thought that way over the last 100 years, we’d still be driving the Model T Ford; much of America would still lack electricity and indoor plumbing; there would be no open heart surgery—in fact, little successful surgery at all; the average lifespan would be 51 years, not 78; and air travel would be in wood and canvas aircraft, one or two people at a time. The progress that has happened since is immense. What about the internet and all the digital devices connected to it? In information technology alone, the contrast is so stark between then and now as to make even consideration of living in a perpetual status quo absurd! Who would think like that?
Soaring to 30,000 feet, as modern air travel now does with ease, and looking down upon the evolution of various food supply chains, virtually every consistently profitable fruit and vegetable sector closely monitors its supply chain. Citrus, for example, keeps a close eye on supply, demand and price, and harvests according to demand. Lettuce does something similar. Many past producers who ignored supply chain issues are no longer in business. Those who do remain, certainly in the potato business, exist beneath the umbrella of those who do pay attention to and obey intrinsic supply chain metrics. In russet potatoes, for example, because the San Luis Valley, Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin and a portion of Texas collaboratively manage their portion of the fresh-potato supply chain, free riding neighbors get to reap the rewards of stable markets created by growers other than themselves.
Producers of such a powerfully demanded item should capitalize on that strength and perfect their supply chain.
Something else to note: The COVID-19 disaster made two important, undeniable points: 1) Knowing that they would be staying home a while and doing their own cooking, among the first items consumers swept from grocery shelves were potatoes; and 2) When recreationally eating, be it quick-service or fine dining, potatoes form the spine of almost every away-from-home meal. This was painfully noted when demand in the eat-out sector fell off.
Here’s the takeaway: People love potatoes, people want potatoes, and people are going to buy and eat potatoes, always. Imagine the impact such strong market positioning would have on producers of any other food commodity or commercial product. All agree that producers of such a powerfully demanded item would capitalize on that strength and perfect their supply chain. Why, in any business model, would any business manager leave even a single economic point unmanaged, much less the one upon which success depends most: the supply chain?
In terms of our wonderful potato, remember that producing a potato crop in the field is less than half the job; the other portion is managing the potato supply chain. While nickels and dimes per hundredweight separate growers’ production costs, whole dollars separate regions that collectively manage the potato supply chain from those that do not.