b'Potatoes USA Holds Annual Meeting InDenver ColoradoThe 47th annual Potatoes USA Meetingof the National Potato Promotion Boardwas held March 12th thru the 14th inDenver,Colorado.Over100boardmembersfromaroundthecountryattendthesemeetings.ThemeetingskickedoffwiththefirstAnnualTotalTater Training workout class.The 30-minutebootcampstyleclasswaswellattended and enjoyed by all, al thoughthere were a number of complaints overthefollowingdaysofsoremuscles.Breakfast followed the workout andfea-tured a number of different potato dish-esdesignedtoenhancerecoveryandPotatoes USA CEO Blair Richardson speaks to over 100 board members.provide the power to focus during thelong day of presentations following. Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership tivenessinestablishedmarkets.or TPP11, without the inclusion of the Potatoes USA also obtained $4.9 millionThe next order of business were meet- U.S., on December 28, 2018, has initiat- in Market Access Program (MAP) fund-ings of the five working committees that ed the four-year process of eliminating ing to be used for ongoing export devel-dictateprogramsandpolicies; the tariffs on all potato and potato prod- opmentprogramsinAsiaandLatinInternationalMarketing,Domestic uctimports.Thesecondyearofthis America in the coming July thruJuneMarketing, Industry Outreach, Research processoccurredonJanuary1,2019, fiscal year.and Finance & Policy.meaning that Canada, New Zealand andAustralia now face half the tariff the U.S. TheDomesticMarketingcommitteeThe International Marketing committee does on their products entering Japan, meetingfocusedonthegrowingmeetingfocusedmainlyonthemany Vietnam, Malaysia and other important demand for potatoes in the U.S. market.factors impacting exports of U.S. pota- markets.Thesecompetitivedisadvan- Forthemarketingyeartodate,Julytoes and products.U.S. potato exports tageswillbecompoundedwiththe 2018February 2019, the value of pota-declined 6% in volume in 2018 as the implementationofFreeTrade tosalesatretailhasgrownby2.4%strongdollar,tightU.S.suppliesand AgreementsbetweentheEuropean whilevolumehasdeclinedbyonlyU.S. initiated trade wars took their toll Union and Japan and Vietnam by early 1.5%.The value of fresh sales at retail isonU.S.competitiveness.Thelargest summer 2019. up1.8%whilevolumeisoffby4.2%and most direct impact of the trade wars drivenalmostentirelybydeclinesinis on the export of frozen potatoes to To try and combat these issues, Potatoes sales of 10 lb. and larger bags of russets.Mexico, which are down 26% from June USA applied for and received $3.6 mil- TheoccurrenceofpotatodishesonthruDecember2018,alossof23,145 lioninAgriculturalTradePromotion restaurant menus across the country hasmetric tons. (ATP)fundingfromUSDA.TheATP risento83%,withfrieson63%offundswillbeusedoverthenexttwo menus.Potato dishes on K-12 schoolLookingforward,theimplementation years to develop new markets for U.S. foodservicemenusincreasedby24%of the Comprehensive and Progressive potato exports and to bolster competi- over the past two school years.A strong24 POTATO GROWER MAY/JUNE 2019'