US: Maine potato growers ready for harvest

After a banner year last year, officials with the Maine Potato Board said Wednesday that this year’s crop looks healthy and disease free, but they will not be sure if it will be comparable to last year’s until harvesting starts in the coming weeks. This year’s crop “looks quite good,” said Don Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board. “I don’t know if we are going to see the same record yield that we saw last year,” he said. The amount of Maine land devoted to potatoes, however, is down by about 3 percent this year to an estimated 48,500 acres, according to board officials. That represents a loss of about 10,000 acres over the last decade, as farmers diversify their crops or age out of the business. More