11-12 IAN Spuds Up and Down

 Lots of potatoes last year without great returns. How does that work? I’m DS and I’ll tell you next. The U.S. Department of Agriculture released figures showing the value of Idaho's potato crop reached a record $855 million last year. That's an increase of nearly $22 million from 2008. The higher than ever yield, however caused some price slumps according to Idaho Potato Commission President Frank Muir: “Last year was an interesting year for Idaho potatoes. We had a record yield and that resulted in a record number of potatoes and unfortunately prices at the beginning of the year dropped down and probably didn’t need to drop so far in order to move the crop.” In fact, and to their credit, at the time, the Idaho Potato Commission urged growers to be patient and refrain from shipping their crops too fast. The advice paid off when prices rebounded over the past few months. Fortunately for potato producers who took that advice , a recent rebound in prices combined with a lot of patience, made the final value of Idaho’s 2009 potato crop an estimated record $855 million which we mentioned earlier. That beats the previous year’s value of $833 million by over $20 million.