10/13/08 Idaho potato harvest

The Idaho potato harvest started in late August and is wrapping up now in eastern Idaho. The Idaho Potato Commissions Frank Muir says the official numbers won't be in until next week but he says this was a terrific harvest. MUIR "If you base it on the roughly the 300 thousand acres and an average yield then you're over eleven billion pounds." That's enough potatoes to cover 500 NFL football fields ten feet high. Some growers were concerned because the weather just didn't cooperate last spring. MUIR "We caught up for the most part in that we had a little bit of a two week delay in some of our growing areas and it looked like the potatoes bulked up just fine. By all accounts that I heard as of today is that we have a very high quality excellent looking crop this year." Now, says Muir, its aggressive marketing to sell all of those Idaho fresh market potatoes. MUIR "Demand is increasing. Our fresh shipments in Idaho are up as of a year ago." The state provide about one third of the US fall potato crop. About 60 percent of those potatoes are grown in eastern Idaho. Bingham County produces almost as many spuds as the entire state of Maine. 62 percent of the Idaho crop is processed as frozen or dehydrated potatoes, 29 percent goes to the fresh market and the rest is held for certified seed. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott