It was a difficult growing season and a long Red River Valley potato harvest season.
"We have excellent quality," said Paul Dolan, manager of Associated Potato Growers, Inc., located in Grand Forks, N.D. "We struggled but the rains were definitely needed at harvest time" to soften the valley's hard soil and help harvest the region's potatoes without crop damage.
"Yields are average" because of a dry growing season but "we have a higher pack-out"
percentage because of the high potato quality, Dolan said. "This year at Associated Potato Growers we have more hundredweight in storage than last year."
He added that some people in the region "were down quite a bit," but estimated that A
ssociated Potato Growers' volume may be up five percent or more.
Prices as the harvest wound down were "holding" and Associated Potato Growers was "trying to raise them a little" as the shipping began, Dolan said.