Canada: Manitoba potato acreage seen steady in 2015, but processors said to look at additional volume

It’s too early to make definitive statements about potato acreage in Canada’s Manitoba province in 2015, but Keystone Potato Producers Association manager Dan Sawatzky expects that if anything, it may go up slightly. “I think we’re pretty confident that we can say that,” he says. In 2014, Manitoba acreage totalled 63,340 acres, of which 45,000 were processing, 7,600 were seed and 10,740 were fresh and miscellaneous. Total Manitoba production in 2014 was estimated at 19.24 million hundredweight. Numbers are not confirmed, but Sawatzky says he has heard that Simplot and Cavendish are both looking to put some additional volume into Manitoba in 2015. “I think things are a little more optimistic as far as volume goes,” he says. More