Skagit Valley Potatoes Pt 2
I'm Bob Larson. The gold, red, white, and purple potatoes grown in the Skagit Valley are in the ground, for the most part and growers are pretty pleased with the planting season.
And, later this Summer, those spuds will be sent to market where Skagit Valley Farms CEO Tony Wisdom says the trade wars and tariffs don't have much impact on their growing or production decisions since virtually all of their potatoes are sold domestically ...
WISDOM ... "There could be some ripple effect because some of our product is shipped to areas maybe that are being effected by the tariffs and trade. And so, it just then becomes a decision about where do the consumers put their dollars."
That said, potato popularity should help ...
WISDOM ... "Fortunately, potatoes, of course, is still America's favorite vegetable and, although generally a little bit lower in value than other things in the produce section, when people have less money they tend to maybe buy more potatoes. So, in kind of a weird way, you know, maybe there'll be some ripple effect on that side of the coin. I mean, who knows."
What about organic? ...
WISDOM ... "Yeah, I'd say we increase organic as a percentage of our whole operation, we increase every year, we're increasing."
WISDOM ... "A lot more baby-sitting. A lot more fine tuning. You know, the weather is always a factor so are weed control is a big issue. It's tough, but, you know, if it were easy everybody'd be doing it, right?"
So far, Wisdom says everything in the Skagit Valley potato world is looking good and right on schedule.
