National Potato Council discusses production costs, oversupply and export growth for US potatoes

United States potato growers are facing continued pressure from rising production costs, labor expenses and oversupply in several sectors of the potato industry, according to the National Potato Council.

From the Ag Information Network, potato growers continue to face multiple challenges during the spring season.

Mike Wenkel, Chief Operating Officer of the National Potato Council, said many of the industry's concerns are similar to those affecting other specialty crop sectors.

Mike Wenkel:

"So, I think if you look across the board, the issues that are there for specialty crops as a whole, really varies, whether it's import pressure that it's driving the issues, whether it's simply, the increase in input cost that's a part of it, the cost of ag labor continues to increase, as well as simply oversupply in different sectors in potatoes."

"It's believed that the current price is considerably below the cost of production, anywhere from an USD 8 to USD 10 hundred-weight loss that growers are going to see in some sectors of the U.S. potato industry."

"New markets are a critical part of what we try to do for the industry. Fortunately, we now have Mexico open for fresh potatoes to move into Mexico that's generating about USD 135 million a year in additional sales of United States potatoes into Mexico."

"We're continuing to try to get Japan open for fresh table stock, as well as just this last couple of weeks, we've seen South Korea open 11 additional states for fresh potatoes to move into there."