02/28/05 United potato growers?

02/28/05 United potato growers?

To say there has never like this been a coming together of potato growers in an attempt to control prices and improve profitability, might be understating things. But this week in Washington D.C., as the National Potato Council Board of Directors meet, some of those participants will also be holding a meeting to potentially form a new, national organization. LONG: We'll spend two days meeting with all the states that have joined co-ops and that have formed co-ops so we can get a united front which will be the United Co-Op of the United States or the United Potato Co-Op of America. That's two of the names they've thrown out. That's Dave Long, a retired Othello Washington potato grower, a Past-President of the National Potato Council, and now C.E.O. of the recently formed United Fresh Potato Growers of Washington and Oregon. That group is one of several United based regional cooperatives that will be represented at this week's meetings. The effort to improve what has been years of a dismal fresh potato market for growers began in Idaho last fall with formation of the United Fresh Potato Growers of Idaho. The efforts by that group to form a cooperative under the federal Capper-Voldstad Act has led to a model that has been copied in places like the Klamath Basin of Oregon, and the potato growing regions of states such as Colorado, Wisconsin, Maine, and Pennsylvania & in other words, most of the nation's primary fresh spud growing regions. Long says the effort is needed to in many grower's opinion, save the U.S. fresh potato industry. LONG: A one per cent increase in the amount of potatoes put on the fresh market will generate a six per cent decrease in price. And for the last several years, we've just been overproducing, overproducing and our growers are slowly going broke. So groups like this are formed to give the consumers a good healthy product at a reasonable price, and have our growers have a reasonable investment. Long says while the new national organization is expected to form when all is said and done this week, even in the event that a national cooperative does not occur, one benefit of this whole process has been improved communication, education, and cooperation between the growers from participating states. And he expects it will be that kind of communication that will be the key to long term success for this new national fresh potato grower organization.
Previous Report02/25/05 There`s more ag producers
Next Report03/01/05 Formula fund dilmena?, Part 1