Total turnaround for potato growers

by Nicole Kitchener

After already experiencing a few below-average years, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick potato growers were then forced to endure a tumultuous 2020. COVID-19 upheavals combined with drought conditions sunk provincial yields by 30 and 35 percent respectively. Growers were, therefore, relieved – and perhaps a bit surprised? – with 2021’s banner season.

It was “total turnaround in terms of the crop this year,” said Kevin MacIsaac, outgoing general manager of the Charlottetown-based United Potato Growers of Canada organization. Weather conditions were nearly perfect, not only allowing yields to increase significantly – likely to record-setting levels in New Brunswick – but the potatoes themselves are “excellent quality,” said MacIsaac. He added, “Sometimes good yield doesn’t always bring good quality, but it seems like we have both this year.”

Noting that numbers won’t be officially released until Dec. 7, MacIsaac estimated that P.E.I. produced 28 million hundredweight (cwt) of potatoes (35 percent more than 2020), while New Brunswick produced 18 million cwt (55 percent more than 2020).

“In P.E.I.’s case, it’s the highest since 2006,” said MacIsaac. “Not the highest ever. That was 2002. New Brunswick? It will probably be one of their largest yields ever.”

The season started out strong and continued that way, said Greg Donald, general manager of the P.E.I. Potato Board. Although it was hot, there was enough rain to make it “one of the nicest crops we’ve had in years,” he said. Although fields did start to get dry in the last three weeks in August, “the crop had such a good start, it didn’t really have an impact,” he added.

PLENTY OF RAIN

Fortuitously, the remnants of hurricanes Henri and Ida, plus other rain events in late August and early September helped size up tubers and bring the crops up. Donald said the Island received a record 200 millimetres of rain in the first week of September alone, but it was well enough in advance of harvest that farmers could manage wet spots or low-lying areas separately, so there was little impact. (Although some farmers have an eye on what’s in storage just to make sure no issues emerge due to the heavy rains.

Echoing MacIsaac, Donald said the quality is “probably some of the nicest I’ve ever seen and I’ve been kicking around for about 30 years in this business.”

However, it wasn’t quite the same story for Michael Woolaver in Canning, N.S. Although Nova Scotia isn’t known for its potato production like P.E.I. and New Brunswick are, there are a handful of larger growers and several like Woolaver and his family who serve the community. On their mixed-vegetable operation, Basinview Farms, they grow 180 acres of russets, round white, red, and Yukon Gold for local farmers’ markets and small grocery chains, and for sale on-farm. Rain from the beginning of August to the start of harvest, around Sept. 10 – when Woolaver said the weather turned “gorgeous” – caused what he estimates was a 20 percent yield loss.

“We’re on a clay-loam soil, so we’d rather have it drier than wetter,” said Woolaver. Due to the property’s profile, the surrounding hills wash off onto the land. “The tubers got large and they poked out through and that created a lot of green,” he said. “That then created a lot of crop loss and cullage. The tuber profile was more on the large side, and they were a rougher potato, especially on the round white.”

In fact, said Woolaver, “despite all the doom and gloom everybody else threw out there,” Basinview yielded a much better potato crop last year thanks to overall better growing conditions. And he added that chemical costs skyrocketed this year compared to 2020, as they had to protect against blight.

STRONG MARKETS

Western Canada, meanwhile, was brought to its knees this summer with drought conditions, despite the ability to irrigate. Alberta, Manitoba, and their U.S. potato-producing cousins, primarily in Idaho and Washington, find themselves in a significant potato production deficit. This at a time when North American pandemic shutdowns are no longer and “people are buying processed potato products like French fries and chips in excess of what they were pre-COVID,” said MacIsaac. He added that the fresh potato market is also strong, something he sees continuing through winter.

“So, there’s opportunity there,” said MacIsaac. However, he said it’s critical to be patient and “meter” the product into the marketplace as it requires to avoid flooding the market and driving down prices.

While Matt Hemphill, executive director of Potatoes New Brunswick, said it’s hard to complain about both an ideal growing and marketing season, it’s been challenging finding a market for what ended up being a 200-million-pound total crop surplus. He said they’ve been sending some of the excess to Manitoba for processing into French fries and hash browns and are in the process of moving more to Alberta. He expects a total of 30 million pounds will go to Western Canada. He’s also wooing buyers from Washington. As for the balance of the surplus? “Processors in the Atlantic northeast are doing the best they can to process the rest of them,” said Hemphill.

SOARING COSTS

Yet, despite demand, there are challenges in getting the potatoes where they need to go, particularly in the U.S. where it’s harder to find commercial haulers due to increased demand from players such as Amazon and FedEx, tightened federal regulations, rising fuel prices, and drivers aging out of the industry.

All of that plus overall global supply chain woes since the pandemic have meant freight costs have risen dramatically for producers and caused delays, especially in getting in parts and equipment specifically related to potato farming. “We find a lot of our producers are having to stock a lot of inventory because they don’t know when they’re going to be able to get that fuel filter or that bearing, so they’re increasing their costs,” said Hemphill. 

And that’s just what P.E.I. grower Ray Keenan is doing. “I don’t know how much we can do about that any more than be proactive and keep our supplies ahead,” he said. Keenan’s Rollo Bay Holdings, near Souris, produces russet varieties for the tablestock market. His biggest worry for next year, though, is the same as most farmers: the soaring cost of fertilizer.

“The only thing we can do is make sure we pay attention to the probable yields we could expect and don’t plant more potatoes than we actually need, but at the same time maximize the value of the fertilizer we’re putting on,” said Keenan, who is also the United Potato Growers of Canada chairman.

By all accounts, said Hemphill, the price of fertilizer is set to double by next year’s planting time. Looking at preliminary costs for 2022, he figures that could mean a $10-million estimated increase over the province’s entire crop. “And that’s not even to mention the concern over supply,” he said. “Is it going to get here and when? It’s all brought in by shipping containers.”

Overall, input costs are expected to increase by at least 20 percent in 2022, said P.E.I.’s Greg Donald. “It’s going to be a very expensive crop next year.”