Settlement negotiations are apparently ongoing in the federal potato price-fixing case that wholesalers, retailers and consumers filed six years ago against United Potato Growers of America and others.

There are two likely scenarios facing U.S. potato growers in the 2014-15 season, and neither of them is sunny, according to Jerry Wright, president and chief executive officer of the United Potato Growers of America, Salt Lake City.

In a recently-filed lawsuit, Associated Wholesale Grocers claims that the United Potato Growers of America, United Potato state groups and many potato grower-shippers are illegally setting potato prices.

Attendees at the Potato Business Summit in Las Vegas spent much of Jan. 9 listening to speakers discuss oversupply and declining consumption and ways to correct them.

Rather than relying solely on acreage estimates from a USDA growers' survey, the U.S. potato industry is physically visiting every spud field in Idaho and other major potato production areas for a fourth year.

Jerry Wright, chief executive officer of the United Potato Growers of America, has a message to potato growers going into the 2012-13 season: Proceed with caution.

A late December report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture has added another perspective on the current drama surrounding the Salt Lake City-based United Potato Growers of America.

The Capper-Volstead Act does not protect United Potato Growers of America from charges it illegally reduced the supply of potatoes in order to raise prices.

Potato farmers are not exempt from antitrust laws that prohibit collusion, including "acreage reductions, production restrictions or collusive crop planning,"according to a federal judge. Chief U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill in Idaho has r...