EEUU: Washington Potato Commission to stay in sweet spot

Most Washington potatoes, Grant County’s included, are grown for the process market. “Ninety percent of what we grow is an ingredient,” processed into French fries, hash browns and similar products, he said.However, on a per-capita basis, U.S. residents are eating fewer potatoes overall, Voigt said, and that trend dates back about 15 years. Research shows potato consumption is down “because people just aren’t cooking.” It turns out children are the crucial factor in potato consumption. “People eat potatoes when there are kids around.”While the U.S. market is flat, worldwide demand is growing, Voigt said. “Now we have to play in the international market.” American potato growers have good customers in Asia, and were building a market until the slowdown at U.S. ports in late 2014 and early 2015. The slowdown was tied to a labor dispute between the unions representing some port workers and the agencies that operate the ports.The slowdown left tons of produce, from apples to hay to potatoes, stranded on the docks up and down the West Coast. In the case of potatoes, European growers filled the gap. “It’s difficult. It really is,” to get those customers back, Voigt said, and American marketers are “doubling our efforts” in the Pacific Rim countries.The American market is affected by concerns about the nutritional value of potatoes, but that’s a less important factor than the change in cooking habits, he said. Potato marketers, in Washington and nationally, are working and have worked to turn that nutritional message around. That was one reason, Voigt said, behind his 60-day experiment in eating only potatoes, five years ago.