North Carolina growers produce around 16,000 acres of potatoes per year, making it one of the state’s most important crops during the summer.
Harvest takes place from mid-June through July and sometimes can stretch into early August. While that amount of acreage may not sound like too much, the entire crop is harvested and shipped within a six-week period, so the potato farmers are hard at work all summer long.
“We consider our market window to be a niche market taking place when storage potatoes from the major potato production areas are about depleted or out of condition, and before the major production areas begin harvest in late summer-early fall,” said Thomas Fleetwood, executive director of the North Carolina Potato Association. “Our growers produce round whites, reds, and yellow flesh potatoes with bright skins that are looked forward to by consumers.”
Once harvested, all potatoes go fresh to the market with table stock potatoes being shipped within 48 hours of harvest. After digging, grading, and proper cooling for transport the fresh, “new” potatoes are available for consumers.
Table potatoes are shipped up and down the East Coast of the U.S., and into eastern Canadian provinces. The North Carolina growers also produce chipping potatoes that are supplied to all the major potato chip companies’ plants such as Frito-Lay, Wise, Utz, and others along the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada.
The NCPA was formed in 1928 by a group of potato growers looking to promote the industry and increase consumer demand and to educate consumers. It’s one of the oldest commodity associations in the country.
“NCPA is very active in promoting the North Carolina potato industry and attends multiple trade shows,” Fleetwood said. “One of our main promotions is the NCPA annual meeting that is a marketing event held during mid-May and brings potato buyers into the major potato production area of the state so the buyers can meet with the growers and see the crop they will be marketing during June and July. We have a bus tour of potato farms and facilities, golf tournament, and very nice receptions/dinners during the events. Everyone looks forward to the events and coming into the area for a few days.”
Potatoes USA and the National Potato Council play a huge role in helping to shape the industry and the NCPA considers itself fortunate to be able to work with these national organizations and has representatives on its board of directors.
In 2021, North Carolina potato growers have seen production trend more toward reds and yellow flesh for the table potatoes, with yellow flesh potatoes seeing the most gain.
“We saw our demand trend more to pre-pandemic levels during the 2021 harvest season,” Fleetwood said. “Back in 2020, during the beginnings of the pandemic, the entire potato industry experienced tremendous consumer demand as some shoppers were buying extra items such as potatoes that have a long shelf life. Also, potato chips saw a great demand.”
A challenge in the industry, which should come as no surprise, involves issues with trucking, as growers have had a tough time finding enough drivers to get the potatoes where they need to go. Fleetwood noted this was a challenge even before the pandemic, but has only grown since.
Now that fall is here, growers are looking ahead and planning for the 2022 season and the upcoming year.
“We will begin planting for our 2022 season in late-February and most growers will finish planting by the end of March,” Fleetwood said. “Since we don’t store potatoes here, all the seed potatoes are brought in from other regions such as Maine, Wisconsin, New York, PEI, etc. We look forward to the 2022 season and look forward to working with the buyers as we begin our marketing plans.”