Record temperatures in late June brought triple-digit heat to much of Washington and Oregon, but industry observers said the potato crop enjoyed near-perfect growing conditions until then.
Chris Voigt, executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, said the outlook for the 2021 crop was much better than 2020, when COVID-19 caused an interruption in both fresh and processed potato sales.
“Last year, we were concerned that we might have (an) extra billion pounds of potatoes in storage that weren’t going to get used,” Voigt said.
While the number of excess potatoes turned out to be “only” about 200 million pounds, growers did suffer hardship.
Potatoes were donated to many food banks in Washington and in other Western and Midwestern states. Eventually, growers and markets were able to move a lot of potatoes at discounted rates for processing, Voigt said.
Last year, the 20 to 25 percent increase in retail potato business after March did not make up for the 50 percent loss in foodservice sales.
This year, those types of worst-case COVID-19-linked scenarios are in the rear-view mirror, Voigt said.
“I think folks are a lot more optimistic,” he said, noting the successful rollout of vaccines nationwide and the economy’s expansion.
“We’re starting to see good business in foodservice, which was really critical for fresh growers, because about half of fresh potato sales in Washington go to foodservice,” he said. “I think every grower is really optimistic this year, and it is looking much brighter than it was last year.”
Acreage Up
Washington potato acreage for 2021 is expected at close to 160,000 acres, up about 5,000 acres from 2020 but down about 5,000 acres from the state’s maximum potato acreage, Voigt said.
Harvest begins in the Columbia Basin with red and yellow potatoes in early to mid-July. Voigt said the russet potato harvest typically gets underway by the last week of July.
Washington growers are showing increasing interest in gold potatoes, but growers also enjoy great quality on red potatoes, he said.
“In a lot of other areas (in the U.S.), there’s been a swapping where red acres are going down and yellow acres are going up, but we’ve been able to maintain our red acres because of the great quality (of the state’s red potatoes),” he said. “We’ve been able to maintain our red acres, but there is a growing interest in yellow potatoes, so we’re starting to see more of more of those grown.”
Organic potatoes are a small factor in Washington’s overall potato production, Voigt said, and some folks that used to grow organic potatoes no longer do.
“We can grow (potatoes) organically, there is no doubt about that. It just never paid,” he said, noting the added costs and lower yields of organic potatoes were not rewarded with the kind of prices organic potato growers needed from retailers.
Washington Potatoes
There are two major potato growing regions in Washington, the biggest consisting of the Columbia Basin, which accounts for about 90% of the state’s potato production. Growers there typically market potatoes on the fresh market and to processors.
In Northwest Washington’s Skagit Valley, growers raise potatoes strictly for the fresh market, Voigt said.
Before the pandemic, Washington growers were nearly at maximum production capacity, as demand for processed potatoes in Asia was exploding.
“Literally, we were kind of capped out; we just didn’t have any additional ground that we could grow acres on,” he said.
The commission has been looking at research that allow growers to produce more potatoes on the existing ground. From a legislative perspective, Voigt said the commission has been trying to get more irrigation water so growers can actually open up dry land with new irrigation projects.
Then the pandemic hit and set the industry back with the decline in foodservice demand.
Now, Voigt said the industry is getting close to recovering to pre-pandemic levels and said the market outlook for this year should be balanced.
“I think this year, we’ve probably got a perfect supply that’s kind of matched up with demand really nicely, but the following year, I’m assuming we’ll get back to where the demand is going to outstrip supply again,” he said.
Processing contract prices this year were not all that attractive to growers and didn’t reflect the higher input prices growers are paying.
“Even though all the inputs were up that the growers (were) using, the contracts were down an average of about 3%,” he said.
That has led to increased interest in the fresh market, he said.
“I think that a few growers have some acres of open potatoes,” he said, noting that those uncommitted potatoes could either be moved fresh or to processing.
“I think some growers might roll the dice and play the fresh market a little bit but again, of course, if foodservice continues on its trajectory of growth, for french fries and frozen potato products, they could take those open potatoes and easily transfer them to the processing market,” he said.
Water Enough
Growers generally enjoy a great water supply in the Columbia Basin, Voigt said, where the irrigation water comes from the Columbia River.
The western slope of the Canadian Rocky Mountains provides outstanding snowpack and water quality.
In addition, Washington’s Cascade Mountains have snowpack that is 110 to 125 percent of normal this season.
“Compared to Oregon, California, and even Idaho, we’ve had a really, really good water year,” he said.
Looking ahead, Voigt said climatologists think the Columbia River is likely to be the most consistent and stable water supply in the country, even accounting for climate change.
“We’re sitting really good on water this year,” he said.
Sustainability Efforts
The industry’s growers are also investing in becoming more efficient by reducing their carbon footprint, Voigt said.
“The entire industry just invested almost $3.5 million to create an endowed chair for soil health and potato cropping systems at Washington State University,” he said, adding that the position is in the process of being filled this summer.
“That person is going to focus on soil health and potatoes,” he said. “What we don’t understand is just all of the biological interactions that happen in the soil, and we want to learn more about that so that we can be even more sustainable and more efficient.”
Grower Concerns
The top concern for growers now, Voigt said, is the rising cost of doing business in Washington state.
The legislative session in Washington this year passed an overtime bill for agricultural workers, making it one of a handful of states with overtime rules for ag workers.
The overtime rule will come into effect in 2022, with an initial threshold of a 55-hour work week before overtime pay kicks in. The law will be gradually phased in so that after three years, overtime pay would kick in after 40 hours per week.
Currently, growers are paying more than $16 per hour for workers in the H-2A program, and the state’s minimum wage this year is $13.50 per hour.