10/01/08 Idaho potato harvest

You can put some numbers on the 2007 Idaho potato crop starting with the final value of 798 million dollars. National Ag Statistics Service says that was 37 and a half million above the 2006 level. The market year average price received by growers of $6.15 per hundredweight was above the '06 level of 5.90. 31.6 million hundredweight went to the fresh potato market while 78.4 million hundredweight was sold to processors. Processing potatoes in Idaho and Malheur County, Oregon accounted for 60.3 percent of the 2007 crop. But the 2008 crop numbers could look different says United Potato Growers of Idaho executive director Jerry Wright because farmers cut back on acreage. WRIGHT "Twelve and a half percent reduction in acres versus last year and we have about 300 thousand acres that were planted." Idaho's 130 million hundredweight potato production last year accounted for 32 percent of the entire US production. Add Oregon and Washington numbers to that and the Pacific Northwest has 62 percent of the US fall production. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott