TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Fresh potato prices have roughly doubled after a poor growing year and a frosty harvest caused American production to drop 6 percent in 2019.
Idaho spud growers who were able to get their harvest out of the ground, and who sell their spuds on the fresh market, are benefiting from the sky-high prices. Few of those growers are in the Magic Valley, where most producers sign contracts with major potato processors in order to lock in their prices.
While production did drop significantly this year, experts don’t expect there to be a potato shortage.
“I don’t anticipate that any time this year you’ll go into a fast-food restaurant and not be able to order french fries,” Idaho Farm Bureau Federation Director of Commodities Zak Miller said.
Potato farmers dealt with difficult conditions from the very beginning of 2019. Wet, cold weather in the spring got the growing season off to a slow start. The summer was cooler than usual too, which was detrimental for spud growth.
“The frost really isn’t the reason the price is up,” Miller said. “The yield was already down to begin with.”
The drop in production has caused potato prices to skyrocket from roughly $6 per hundred-pound sack during the summer, to roughly $11 now.
For the farmers who got their crop safely out of the ground and sell fresh potatoes — the kind that you buy whole at the store — 2019 will be a good year. But most of those fortunate farmers aren’t in the Magic Valley.
“There’s way fewer growers in the Magic Valley that do fresh (potatoes),” said Ryan Moss, chief operating officer Moss Farms, headquartered in Rupert.
The Magic Valley has a number of major potato processors such as McCain Foods and Lamb Weston. Most Magic Valley farmers sign contracts with those companies so they don’t have to gamble on fresh market prices.
The early freeze in the second week of October was the cap on a tough year.
“Nobody saw it coming until five days before,” Idaho Potato Commission Chairman Randy Hardy said. “There really wasn’t any time to make any adjustments.”
Early October freezes are rare.
“It’s just not normal,” Miller, who grows potatoes in St. Anthony, said. “It’s just unheard of.”
The freeze didn’t impact all of Idaho equally. The more mountainous regions of eastern Idaho suffered more. Still, Miller noted that farmers from the Treasure Valley clear to eastern Idaho got “nipped” by the storm.
