News on The Potato Supply Chain from Northern America

This year’s potato harvest was met with an unrelenting drought that diminished crops and tied up water resources for Aroostook County, Maine farmers.

With the harvest season underway, the impact of summer's drought-like conditions is being unearthed in New Brunswick. Due to a lack of rainfall during the growing season, potato farmers say their yields are down significantly for fall 2020.

US Fresh potato sales increased significantly from July 2019 through June 2020, and so did the number of households buying potatoes. Eighty-eight percent of households purchased potatoes on an average of 10 times during the 52-week period.

Two research scientists on P.E.I. have spent their summer trying to grow a better potato, more resistant to scab and greening, which are both costly problems for potato growers.

The smallest potato from the Carcross/Tagish First Nation garden harvest this year was the size of a pea. The spud might be tiny, but its ancestors travelled a long way to get here. The Lingít K'úntsx', or Tlingit potato, has been grown in Alaska for over 200 years.

Since public health restrictions for COVID-19 were put in place, US potato sales at retail have been well above historical levels.

Northern Farm Training Institute will test a range of potato varieties to see which do best in Northern Canada. This pilot project could approved earlier this month could improve food security.

As the first day of fall arrives, the potato crop in Canada is in varying stages of growth and/or harvest. The United Potato Growers of Canada provide an update.

Cavendish Farms’ new Potato Research Centre in New Annan, Prince Edward Island officially opened on September 17, 2020 with a ribbon cutting with Dennis King, Premier of Prince Edward Island, and company officials.

Many potato fields across Prince Edward Island are not in the condition they usually are at this time of year due to the hot and dry conditions for much of July and August.

Last January we could never have predicted how the year would play out. In light of the impacts of COVID-19, we knew that the Potato Expo had to change.

A key requirement for a longtime potato storage is that the storage conditions match the needs and end use of the crop. These requirements of can be assessed before harvest by doing several test digs which allow to determine the distribution and level of tuber infection.

The National Potato Council’s annual meeting, in previous years combined with the Potato Expo, will next year be combined with Potato D.C. Fly-in in late February

A WSU study has estimated the 2020 economic losses from potato production and processing in Washington. The demand shocks of COVID-19 resulted in a hit of roughly $1 billion dollars in gross state product.

The potato harvest is now underway in the Red River Valley. Yields are all over the board ranging from poor to excellent. Most of the fields with poor yields were damaged by heavy rain that fell on, and around June 30th.

Just days before his Center, CO, operation kicked off its 2020 San Luis Valley potato season, Skyline Potato Co. General Manager Les Alderete said he was optimistic about the overall market situation and the coming year.

MountainKing Potatoes has added Cindy Adkins, a former owner and operator of the nation's largest certified organic packer of fingerling potatoes, to its team of sales representatives, the company says in a press release recently issued.

Crop sales in first half of 2020 topped CAD 200M despite COVID-19 pandemic. It has been on the wild side, but 2020 has started out well for Prince Edward Island farmers.