Red River Valley has plenty of potatoes this fall

Mother Nature took a while, but she smiled upon the Red River Valley this fall. Rain in the growing months and at the start of harvest hurt production for Red River Valley red potato growers, but on Oct. 15, as Ted Kreis worked from the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association booth at the PMA Fresh Summit, he indicated that the valley’s recent weather was dry for harvest and the forecast was good. “We have plenty of quality potatoes available,” he said. “There may be a supply problem in February and March” as the storage season winds down earlier than normal, but until then, “we have potatoes and they are excellent.” In mid-October, “maybe 65 percent of the harvest is done,” he noted. Many of those red potatoes are put into storage as they come off the field.  Some packers don’t start packing until the harvest is over. As of Oct. 15, “the majority of the houses are shipping,” he said. More