The Potato Growers of Canada (UPGC) issued a report in which the organization comments on the latest potato harvest estimates by Statistics Canada, released yesterday.
“Given the late harvest in the country, and the amount of acres left in the field, it was difficult for Statistics Canada to gather the appropriate information from growers at a normal time,” according to Kevin MacIsaac, General Manager of the Potato Growers of Canada. Industry requested the delay into mid December to allow growers more time to respond.
“It should be noted that this report is an update and our most accurate information will not be available until January after final adjustments are made,” MacIsaac says in the report. “Look for further revisions in January 2019.”
The StatsCan report indicates 16,365 acres of potatoes were abandoned for the 2018 crop. This is very close to UPGC estimates circulated earlier in the fall.
2018 production in this report indicates a decrease of 2.8 million hundred weight below the 2017 crop. Industry had placed the losses closer to 5.5 million hundred weight but this appears to have been offset by increases of 2.7 million hundred weight in the provinces of Alberta, New Brunswick, and British Columbia.
Canadian yields would appear similar to last year’s 312cwt/acre, however yields have less significance this year as they are calculated on harvested acres and not on planted acreage.
Some provincial highlights in this update include:
Alberta up 1.8 million cwt.
New Brunswick up 710,000 cwt.
British Columbia up 276,000 cwt.
Prince Edward Island down 1.9 million cwt.
Manitoba down 1.9 million cwt.
Ontario down 912,000 cwt.
Quebec down 710,000 cwt.
Saskatchewan down 171,000 cwt.
Nova Scotia down 67,000 cwt.
