Year of Potato celebrated here

Production in Basin has dropped in last 20 years

ABOVE: Teresa Wilma, right, sorts through red potatoes Wednesday at Wong Potatoes.

BELOW: Red potatoes fall into a box after being sorted.  

By DD BIXBY

H&N Staff Writer

January 17, 2007

   The United Nations named 2008 International Year of Potato to bring awareness to the world’s No. 4 food crop and shed light on the importance of agriculture as world population rises and brings other global concerns to the forefront. 

   In the Klamath Basin , every year is year of the potato. 

    Oregon is typically between the fourth and sixth biggest potato producer in U.S. and the Klamath Basin is the second largest producing region for the state of Oregon after the Columbia Basin , said Brian Charlton, extension agent at the Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center . 

   Twenty years ago, there were about 30,000 Basin acres in potato production, but the harsh reality of economics shaved that number down to between 12,000 and 16,000, according to Charlton and third-generation farmer Dan Chen. 

   The number of farmers also has dropped from about 250 to fewer than 100, Chen said. Charlton put the number of potato growers at about 35 to 50. 

   Of the acreage in production now, Charlton said that 1,000 acres were producing seed potatoes, 5,000 were producing for the chipping market (of which 95 percent of the chip potatoes go to Frito- Lay) and about 6,000 were fresh market potatoes like russet types, yellows, reds and specialty types.

Stabilizing the market

Potatoes are a $20 million a year industry in the Basin, Charlton said.

Potatoes are a high risk crop though, Chen and Charlton said.

Chen said per acre, about $2,500 goes into growing potatoes. The market price returns per acre are between $2,800 and $3,000, but that’s never a guarantee. 

   And it’s only been the last several years that Basin producers have broken even or sometimes made a profit year-to-year, Chen said. 

   In 2004, Klamath Basin potato producers joined a national co-op as a way to stabilize their market. 

   The United Potato Growers of Klamath, in step with the national organization, plan production to meet consumer demand. 

   “So we’re trying to figure out how much the country needs and then match that in supply,” Chen said. 

   Nearly 70 percent of Basin growers are involved in the cooperative, Chen said, and they’re seeing improvements. Even some nonmembers are reducing their production acreage. 

   Since 2004, that reduction has scaled production acres down 15 percent in the Basin. 

   Progress and pests 

   Chen said Wednesday the Klamath water settlement could be a good thing for potato growers. 

   “We’re giving up things, but we’re getting things, too,” he said. 

   One of the big gets, he said, was water security. 

   “We need stability in what we’re doing,” he said. “If we’re going to put $2,500 an acre into the ground we need to be assured that we’re going to have water to start and finish the crop.” 

   An exciting venture for Basin producers is a potato developed in the Basin, the Klamath Pearl, which is catching on with the organic market. The Klamath Pearl has been in production for six years. 

   “We’re selling these in Trader Joe’s,” Chen said. “The product is going nationwide (this year).” 

   Pests are a worry for potato growers, and can keep the Klamath farmers on their toes. But the elevation of the Basin keeps the actual threat pretty low, Chen said. 

   Charlton has summer trapping programs for nematode and tuber worms, but he said he hasn’t caught anything in two years. 

   Another problem Charlton sees is a recent quarantine on seed potatoes coming from Alberta , Canada , after a golden cyst was found. 

   “That’s going to have a pretty big impact on the whole of Oregon ,” he said. “ Oregon seed growers buy a lot of seed crop from Alberta .”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material  herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed  a  prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and  educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

Source:  http://pioneer.olivesoftware.com/Daily/Skins/heraldandnews/

navigator.asp?skin=heraldandnews