Voigt discusses the state of Washington potatoes

MOSES LAKE — The challenges facing Washington potato farmers this year could be called unique.

“We’re coming off two bad years,” said Chris Voigt, executive director for the Washington Potato Commission.

In 2020, Washington potato farmers found themselves in a place where they had a good crop, but no one to sell it to.

“The pandemic was devastating,” Voigt said. “We had a great crop. Come April, we found out we had three billion pounds of potatoes that were not going to be used.”

Hopes for a successful comeback in 2021 were dashed when the Columbia Basin experienced very high heat in June. The result was a loss of both yield and quality.

“The starch quality was way down,” Voigt said. “There were concerns about the potatoes going into storage and if they would rot. It has not been as devastating as we were fearing. Between the pandemic year and the heat, we’re looking forward to a good spring. We’re ready to wipe the slate clean.”

But those aren’t the only challenges facing potato growers. The year 2022 is the first time that Washington farmers will have to pay overtime for agricultural work. The resulting labor costs, coupled with a high minimum wage, will make it difficult for farmers to compete with neighboring states. Voigt is concerned that companies will stop investing in the potato industry.

“Processors will have to pay more for potatoes,” Voigt said. “I’m concerned about the cost of food production climbing here in Washington state.”

The Washington Potato Commission is supporting a bill to be introduced in the legislature that would give farmers a 12-week harvest window when they would be exempt from paying overtime.

“If we can get 12 weeks where we don’t have to pay overtime, we should be able to keep farmers in business,” Voigt said.

The supply chain issues facing the country are also causing challenges for potato exporters. Since the pandemic, shipping companies have found it easier and more cost effective to ship empty containers back to Asia without being loaded in the U.S. first. This has caused restaurants, such as McDonald’s in Japan, to not be able to get the Washington potato products that they want.

“This has long-term ramifications for us,” Voigt said. “Restaurants have to have them (potato products). They are getting them from Europe. Europe is more efficient and automated. They are able to off load much quickers. It’s hard to get business back once you lose it. I’m concerned about how many years it will take to get business back. Processors are trying to use every port possible to get products there.”

That includes ports in California, Canada and Houston. Some products have even been shipped via 747. To help with this issue, Congress has passed a bill that will help to hold shipping companies accountable and cause them to provide the U.S. with service if they are utilizing U.S. ports.

The supply chain issues also affect the growers who are attempting to get chemicals and fertilizer for their crops.

“Ingredients to make products come from overseas,” Voigt said. “Fertilizer and chemical prices are high and availability is tight.”

But in spite of the major issues facing Washington potatoes, there are still bright spots.

“Our customers want out potatoes and potato products,” Voigt said. “We could be selling out of everything we grow, if we can get it there. We have to be really grateful for how resilient our production system is with heat. We didn’t get any moisture last spring. We are fortunate to have such a resilient irrigation system. We had an awful drought and had a good supply of water.”

The potato commission is doing all it can to educate legislators, consumers and media influencers about farming. The TV show “Washington Grown” is in its ninth season and has received multiple Emmy awards. It can be watched on TV stations all around the state and on YouTube.

The commission also organizes legislative farm tours, where legislators get to visit farms and talk to farmers about the issues they face.

“A majority of legislators live in suburban areas,” Voigt said. “They are not in tune. We educate them on things like harvest. You can’t work eight hours and send everyone home. You have to get the crop in.”

In late 2021, the commission reached out to social media influencers on the Instagram, Facebook and TikTok platforms, inviting them to learn about potato farming.

“We had about 30 people,” Voigt said. “Most of their followers are urban based. It is another way to get our message out. It has been a really good tool to reach people we would not normally reach.”

On the research side of potatoes, the future is looking bright. Research will soon be starting on soil health, using funds contributed by the Washington Potato Commission, potato processors and potato growers. Research is also continuing on how high heat and climate change affect potatoes, a project that started a few years ago, that involves planting potatoes on top of buried heat cables.

New data collection methods are also being implemented. Drones are taking high-quality images of fields in an effort to identify disease and insect problems. The hope is in a couple of years, computers will be trained to effectively identify issues and give farmers information about their crop, down to the individual plant. Sprayers can then be attached to center pivots and will be able to utilize the advanced imaging to spray only the areas of the field that need it.

“The computer will know how much to spray and where to spray it,” Voigt said. “Those are probably the biggest game changers. It will be more efficient and produce more food with less resources.”