Later start on smaller crop of Idaho potatoes this summer

Supplies of Idaho potatoes continue to be extremely tight and will likely gap before fresh crop potatoes come on later this summer.

“We’re at the end of the storage crop and supplies have become much tighter,” says Ryan Wahlen of Pleasant Valley Potato in Aberdeen, Idaho. “The current crop is also about two weeks behind across the state so shippers are trying to make the supplies that they do have in storage stretch a little longer than normal to cover a gap because there’s going to be a gap. And one that’s probably longer than normal.”

Behind that new crop delay is largely a lack of heat. “It went into the ground on time. But it’s just been a very cool spring and the potatoes haven’t had a chance to get the heat units that they need to grow,” says Wahlen. On the western side of the state, the crop is expected to begin harvest between the first week and the middle of August while on the eastern side, the harvest may not begin until the end of August.

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