b"Covid-19 and Potatoes-A Tale of Two Marketsby Ted Kreis, NPPGA Marketing and Communications DirectorSuddenlythehandfulofshedsin ed in our region, this isnt true allthe Red River Valley that were still over.IntheNorthwest,russetsareshipping, were now packing at max- king for both markets so inevitably,imum capacity for the first time all russetsintendedforprocessorsareseason,andpricesstrengthened finding their way to the fresh mar-even further.ketduringthiscrisis.Fortunatelythis year there is actually some roomMeanwhile, frozen processors, both for that to happen without it crash-here and all over the world saw their ingthefreshmarketaswell.Lastbusiness rapidly dry up.Why? The year it would have been a disaster.frozenpotatomarketishighly Goingforward,nobodyreallydependentonfoodservicebusiness knowswhatwillhappenandatwhich includes restaurants.As we what pace it will happen, especiallyall know, governments all over the inthefreshmarket.Mostfreshworldclosedrestaurantsinan growers in the Red River Valley areBymid-Marchfreshpotatoship- attempttoslowthespreadof planting about the same as last year.ments from the Red River Valley met COVID-19. In addition, other large Butfrygrowerswillneedtocom-or exceeded last year's numbers for users of frozen potato products like pensate for 2019 frozen product stillthefirsttimeallyear.Shipments schoolsanduniversitiesshuttheir remaininginthepipeline.Processhadbeenrunningatabouttwo- doors as well. potatogrowersarehavingtheirthirds of last year's pace all season 2020cropcontractsreducedasauntil the pandemic broke.That is Hereonthenorthernplainsvery resultofthat.Hereinourregion,when consumers abandoned restau- fewgrowers,ifany,growforboth one frozen processor has cut the vol-rantsinexchangeforeatingat thefrozenandfreshsectors.Fresh ume contracted by 10 to 12 percenthome. Grocery stores in the U.S. saw growers got out of the russet busi- while the other two processors havea 27 percent overall increase in busi- nessintheRedRiverValleyyears cut contracted volume from 20 to 25ness in March while sit-down restau- ago to specialize in red and yellow percent. rant business plummeted more than varieties. Meanwhile, russet growers90 percent.intheareaalmostalwayssendall Elsewhere, the Columbia Basin cutstheirspudstoafrozenprocessing differwidelyamongthethreebigFresh packing sheds in the Red River plant. So in our area, russet growers processors, ranging from 12 percentValley had been shipping at a much arefeelingmostofthehurtwhile at one to as much as 42 percent atslower than normal pace all season red and yellow growers have bene- another.In Idaho, cuts are generallybrought on by the heavy losses from fited.around16percentatallplants.the prevented harvest last fall. But Maine growers have also been cut 16inmid-Marcheverythingchanged. Despite growers being very segment- percentbutWisconsingrowersare4 POTATO GROWER MAY/JUNE 2020"