Manitoba: Higher prices let farmers weather low potato yield

Extreme weather carved a chunk out of Manitoba's potato production this year, but high prices are helping to ease the pain for local producers.

Manitoba farmers harvested 38,102 fewer tonnes of potatoes this year -- 825,552 versus 863,654 in 2010, for a decline of 4.4 per cent, according to preliminary estimates issued Friday by Statistics Canada.

That was in spite of the fact they seeded 1,214 more hectares of land (29,543 versus 28,329) and harvested 809 more hectares of crop (28,329 versus 27,520).

Industry officials blamed the production decline on too much rain in the spring and too much heat during the summer. "We had excessive rain until July 1 and then no rain after that,"said Wayne Rempel, president of Kroeker Farms in Winkler and a former vice-president of the Seed Potato Growers Association of Manitoba.

The summer drought conditions were accompanied by lots of hot weather, which also slowed the growth of potato plants, said Larry McIntosh, president and CEO of Peak of the Market, the provincial agency that regulates the packaging and marketing of potatoes in Manitoba. "The yields in general were down, but the quality was good,"McIntosh said.

Rempel said higher potato prices are helping to take the sting out of this year's smaller yields. They're up about 30 per cent from a year ago due to lower yields through much of North America, he said.

He added that economically, it's better for growers to have a bit smaller crop but higher prices than to have a bigger crop and low prices.