11/15/06 Spud growers asked to hike fee

The Idaho Potato Commission's role is to promote the state's most famous agricultural product. IPC president Frank Muir is asking the state's spud growers to increase the tax they pay on each hundredweight produced. Right now it's ten cents per sack. MUIR "Six cents comes from grower, four cents comes from the second handler which is either a shipper or the processor. Of course the grower usually believes they pay the entire ten cents." Muir wants 15 cents. That self imposed 50 percent tax hike would generate four and a half million dollars. That money would go directly into expanding the current 30 city marketing campaign aimed at increasing Idaho potato consumption. MUIR "The advertising level that we're currently at based on our current revenue allows us to just advertise at what I call 'threshold levels' which basically maintains consumer behavior." He will have to convince growers that a nickel per hundredweight is worth it and some of them already have contracts with processors for next year's crop. Muir says inflation has increased advertising costs 20 percent since 2000 but the potato commission marketing budget hasn't kept up with that increase. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott