December
12, 2005
Contact: Keith Esplin 208.243.1824
UNITED Potato Growers of America held their first annual grower meeting December 7, preceding the National Potato Council Seed Seminar and Outlook Summit in Dearborn Michigan. UNITED reviewed the unprecedented cooperation received in uniting growers across the United States and Canada and the successes this cooperation has achieved in raising fresh potato prices. The national UNITED organization was organized just nine months ago, yet more has been done to unify the North American potato industry than ever before.
When UNITED was first organized, the board knew they had to develop a plan to reduce planted potato acreage, or the dismal pricing received by growers for the ’04 crop would likely continue. They developed a successful ’05 acreage reduction program that has resulted in the highest early storage season potato prices in 10 years. UNITED voluntary and paid acreage reductions were responsible for more that half the acreage cut experienced in the United States this year.
Canadian growers were also quick to respond when they saw U.S. growers organizing. Growers in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada’s largest potato producing province, organized their own program to “buy down” acreage, and added nearly 10,000 acres to the organized cuts that UNITED of America implemented. Canadian potato growers representing 96% of Canadian potato production are now forming a UNITED Potato Growers of Canada organization to manage potato supplies in a coordinated on-going program with UNITED of America.
The annual meeting also featured strategies for acreage management and supply control for the upcoming ’06 crop year. UNITED growers are well aware that if they return to producing normal acreage levels, potato prices will again fall to the disastrous levels of recent years.
The meeting highlight was a panel of marketing experts from across the U.S. and Canada. They discussed the first ever national “’05 pack plan” that the UNITED Marketing Committee developed to estimate the quantity of potatoes that is available for the fresh market on a monthly basis. The panel also discussed the need for national sales and marketing consolidation to match the consolidation already happening at the customer level.
Jack Heatherington of Northwest Farm Credit Services, part of the nation-wide Farm Credit System, related the support Ag bankers have for UNITED’s efforts. He advised growers to work to eliminate distrust among growers.
UNITED was originally organized to help fresh growers, but soon recognized that the fortunes of all growers, including seed, process, and chip growers are all closely inter-related. To address these needs the UNITED board recently authorized the formation of committees to explore how these other vital segments of the potato industry can also benefit by uniting in common efforts to manage potato supplies.
Additional meetings were
organized by UNITED throughout the week, during the Seed Seminar, to assess the
interests of chip, seed, and process growers in using the UNITED organization
to address their own needs. As a result, UNITED intends to meet with process
bargaining groups in January to plan strategy for raising contract prices that
currently are too low to cover cost of production and provide a return on
investment to process growers. ###