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Manitoba

Manitoba’s potato sector is gearing up to supply an expanding industry but seed supplies will be tight after a tough harvest last season. A number of producers are planning capital upgrades to keep up with the rise in demand.

McCain Foods (Canada) announced Bailey Farms as 2017 Crop Year Champion Potato Grower for the McCain Manitoba plants during the annual Growers’ Appreciation Banquet.

Manitoba, the second largest potato growing province in Canada, has a potato shortage as 8 percent of its acreage goes unharvested.

This year has been a difficult one for potato producers in the Portage region. Shifting weather extremes have made both growing and harvesting difficult at times.

Fiskel Farms of Carberry, Manitoba was named the McCain 2016 Crop Year Champion Potato Grower for the McCain Manitoba plants during the annual Growers’ Appreciation Banquet held at Canad Inns in Portage la Prairie.

Swansfleet Alliance of Treherne and Bruxelles was named the Top Potato Grower for the McCain Foods Manitoba plants during the annual Growers’ Banquet held in November in Carberry MB, Canada

Keystone Potato Producers Association based in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, has yet to complete negotiations with Simplot Canada II over a contract for 2014 production.

McCain Foods still hasn’t settled on the volume of potatoes it wants Manitoba processing potato growers to produce this year, even though planting is just weeks away.

Manitoba potato farmers could face steeper cuts in contracted potato production unless they can become more cost competitive with other areas of North America, a senior official with McCain Foods says.

A shortage of locally grown processing potatoes is threatening to make the Canadian province of Manitoba an importer of spuds for the first time in more than two decades and will lead to production cuts in at least one local processing plant.