MAY 2018 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Potato growers need to exploit opportunities


Tap into seed stock shortage by PETER MITHAM


DELTA – A short harvest in 2017 will see BC stocks of table potatoes run out sooner than usual this spring but the big opportunity for growers is seed stock, which declined precipitously during Western Canada’s searingly dry summer last year. While yields from BC potato fields held their own after a record year in 2016, total production was nevertheless down 9.6% in 2017 at 1,770,000 hundredweight (cwt). “We know that will mean a


shorter time in the marketplace,” Kevin MacIsaac, general manager with the United Potato Growers of Canada, told the annual meeting of the BC Potato and Vegetable Growers Association in Delta on February 28. BC stocks of coloured potatoes were set to


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be “fairly well depleted” by the end of March. MacIsaac’s data showed the


total volume of potatoes in storage in BC was down 18.1% in February at 533,000 cwt. Table stocks were hit hardest, dropping 28.8% from 486 cwt a year ago to 289 cwt this year. Seed stock was virtually unchanged at 244 cwt, meaning BC has a chance to supply other areas where hot weather took a toll on seed production. Alberta, for example, saw a 31.2% decline in seed stock. “We’re not taking true advantage of that situation,” MacIsaac said.


He encouraged growers to


ask more for seed while they could and while the dollar looks affordable to buyers in order to offset the greater cost of inputs. MacIsaac also noted that


See POTATO on next page o


Students from Richmond Christian Middle School were enthusiastically getting their hands dirty last month to grow their own potatoes, courtesy of Agriculture in the Classroom’s Spuds in Tubs program. Potatoes are planted in tubs in March, then harvested in June before school lets out for summer. There are now 458 classrooms throughout BC participating in the program. SUBMITTED PHOTO


Spuds in tubs


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More Crops. Less Ash.


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