Washington Potatoes Pt 1

Washington Potatoes Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
I'm Bob Larson. With about a month remaining in this year's Washington potato harvest, the outlook for growers appears to be pretty good.

Matthew Blua with the Washington Potato Commission says it's too early to give us a good assessment of the harvest, but if our reputation is any indication ...

BLUA ... "Here in the Columbia Basin, we grow more potatoes per acre than anywhere in the world. We have a very long season. We have these outstanding, sandy soils that potatoes do very well in. And, we have a lot of tremendous expertise here and great agricultural support."

And, Blua says Washington potato quality is top notch ...

BLUA ... "It's been widely recognized, we grow a great potato and most of our potatoes, at least from the Columbia Basin, go to processing and they demand a really high-quality potato for processing. And processing, what I mean by that, are things like frozen French fries and tater tots and other kinds of products that frequently we see in restaurants and also in the frozen section of the grocery store, but also things like dehydrated potatoes."

With regards to the harvest, he says the first round is almost complete, but there's still a ways to go ...

BLUA ... "We're basically just sort of at the end of our early potatoes, maybe even a little beyond that. We will start harvesting our late potatoes starting around now through October."

Tune in tomorrow for more on Washington potatoes and what the Commission is up to with regards to soil health research to improve both potato quality and yield.

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