ConAgra vs. Sipco

The Hatfields and the McCoys…errrhhh, make that ConAgra and SIPCO…tension in the air, but no one can talk about it. This has been a banner year for the Potato State and for potato producers as it relates to yield and quality of yield. The weather has cooperated, even though the cold wet spring threw up a few hurdles and farmers were biting their nails over the threat of some early and heavy Idaho frosts.

Soooo. With that positive report on yield, are we dancing in the fields?  High-fiving and back-slapping? Certainly Dan Hargraves, Executive Director of the Southern Idaho Potato Cooperative (SIPCO), isn’t all that jubilant because we may have too much of a good thing: “Idaho, stand alone, we’ve got plenty of potatoes. We’re probably gonna need a little help from these other areas if we’re gonna make a market this year and I think it’s gonna be danged difficult.”

Why would that be? I mean, world hunger…fast food chains selling French Fries at record levels…the nutritional value of the potato being as high as it is…how about all the contracted potato buys between Idaho producers and Con-Agra? Short answer…"Been asked to not comment on it.”