06/15/07 Demand up for Washington produce rail car pool

Farm and Ranch June 15, 2007 Last fall Rail Logistics, operator of the Washington Produce Rail Car Pool, was wondering "Where's the spuds?" While the program may have got off to a slow start last year, Chris Voigt, Executive Director of the Washington State Potato Commission, says that is not the case this year. Voigt: "It has really picked up and actually we have maxxed out capacity of the cars that are available and Rail Logistics, who is the contractor handling this, is actually going to commit 20 new cars for us. So we will have a total, I think, of 51 cars available to ship Washington produce via rail. So we are pretty excited about that." Mike Lerner, a Rail Logistics Managing Partner, says they have contracts with potato shippers that will take them right through this season. Voigt says the produce train, which the Commission worked to get created, is important because the main rail carrier of fresh produce, Burlington Northern Sante Fe is phasing out standard refrigerated cars and is going to super sized refers which many produce receivers are not equipped to handle. Voigt: "And so the federal government and the state government both contributed to the program to where they are guaranteeing delivery of rail cars and so we will always have a reliable supply of produce rail cars and that is very important for our industry." If you see some bright royal blue refer cars doing down the track, that will be the Rail Logistics Cold Train carrying Washington spuds and produce. That's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report. Brought to you in part by the Washington State Potato Commission. Nutrition today! Good health tomorrow! I'm Bob Hoff on the Northwest Ag Information Network.