CFAP-2 Includes Potatoes Pt 2
I’m Bob Larson. The silver lining for the potato industry in the midst of the pandemic storm is that they will be included in Round 2 of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program which includes an additional $14-billion for ag producers struggling with food service disruptions.
National Potato Council CEO, Kam Quarles says the sales-based Round 2 should be fairly easy for potato growers to navigate …
QUARLES … “For specialty crops, that percentage will be roughly 10% of those 2019 sales. It gets a little bit more complicated. Specialty crops are in their own bucket. It gets a little more complicated if you’re growing things in multiple buckets, program crops, mixing with other things.”
Quarles says it’s no cure-all, but it’s gotta help …
QUARLES … “Yeah, that’s really what we were advocating from the beginning is, clearly this is something that just, it really blind-sided not just the agriculture industry but everyone.”
And, Quarles says potatoes had a real need for assistance …
QUARLES … “Producers needed, given that over 60% of our industry our food service side of the business just shut down for a period of time. That’s going to cause kind of a cascading impact and producers really needed the federal government to stand behind them and provide them with relief to get us past this ugly period.”
Come back tomorrow for more on the CFAP 2 help available for potato growers and the urgency for signing up.
