12-13 IAT Potato Money

I called University of Idaho economist Paul Patterson and asked if potato producers were making money this year or not? His response? We haven't looked at things from that standpoint yet in terms of making money. If you look at, particularly in the fresh market, prices that growers are getting today compared to a year ago, they are doing substantially better. Last year, the 2012 crop was pretty much a disaster in the price sense to fresh market growers in the state of Idaho and, really, all over the nation. There were just too many potatoes for the demand and therefore prices were pretty anemic for the entire year. The market has come back and growers are currently at least covering their costs of production and probably just a few little bit above that at this point. If that trend continues, it should be a profitable year in terms of growers recovering their costs for this year.