Spud growers continue cutting acreage

Voluntary cooperative program aims at boosting prices nationwide

Mitch Lies
Capital Press Staff Writer

June 9, 2006

ECHO, Ore. – Interest in the national potato acreage reduction program is growing.

Tony Amstad, owner of Amstad Produce in Hermiston, Ore., and a member of the United Potato Growers of America, said several states have joined the program this year, giving the program about 75 percent of potato acreage in America. Under the program, growers voluntarily reduce potato acreage 10 percent below the 2004 crop production level.

Amstad reported that acreage in Washington and Oregon is down about 10 percent from the 2004, and acreage in other states also is down nearly 10 percent.

“It’s getting bigger,” he said recently in an on-farm interview. United Potato Growers of America is close to persuading potato growers in Kern County, Calif., to join the acreage reduction program, and the co-op has recruited growers in Nebraska and Kansas to join Colorado, Wyoming, Wisconsin and Klamath-area growers in the at-large division of the voluntary program.

Supporters of the program have been unable to persuade Maine growers to join.

“Maine felt that they cut so many acres the last five years, they are not quite ready to join the co-op,” Amstad said. “There’s interest there, but they’re not quite ready.”

Canadian growers also joined the program this year. “They could see the light and formed their own co-op in February,” Amstad said.

Amstad said he didn’t know exactly how many Canadian acres are in the program, but seed acreage is down in Alberta and British Columbia this year, he said.

The acreage reduction program started last year after several years of low prices.

“We just had to bring production in line with demand,” Amstad said. “We had to control our own destiny, and United is a tool to be able to allow us to do that.”

The program has encountered only minor resistance, he said.

“If we hadn’t of formed a co-op 18 months ago, it would’ve been down to the last man standing,” he said, “because most of us would’ve been broke by now.”

The success of the program is mind-boggling, he said, having taken off “like it was a fire” from the first time it was mentioned as a possibility 18 months ago.

Small and large growers are joining the cooperative, he said, under the same incentive. “Whether you’re a small grower or a big grower, if you’re not making money, you’re not making money.”

Amstad said he doubts the co-op can ever achieve 100 percent participation. “You’re always going to have your fence riders,” he said. “We can’t stop the outsider from planting another circle or two or three. We can’t force them to join.”

Still, with prices holding stable the past 18 months and with program participation on the rise, the early assessment is it’s a success.