MONTE VISTA, Colo.—Surging fuel and fertilizer costs are hurting the potato industry, even though potato prices are good, the executive director of the Colorado Potato Administrative Committee says.
Three years ago, cost of production in the San Luis Valley was about $4 per 100 pounds of potatoes, said Jim Ehrlich. Today, it is more than $7 per 100 pounds.
Rising fuel prices have raised costs for transportation, freight, chemicals and nitrates, he said. Meanwhile worldwide demand for fertilizer has surged, pushing prices upward.
Chris Sittler of Stone’s Farm Supply said it cost a potato farmer last year an average of $90 an acre for starter fertilizer. This year, the cost is almost $300.
Ehrlich said the valley had about 59,000 acres in potato production last year, down from the all-time high of 78,000 acres in 1996. This year, production is expected to be about 56,000 acres.
“Growers have chosen to grow wheat instead of potatoes. Sixty-pound bushels of wheat sell for $7 a bushel and an acre of ground can produce about 8,000 pounds of wheat. Wheat can gross from $900 to $1,000 an acre,” Ehrlich said.
“The farmer needs specialized equipment, storage cellars, lots of labor, and markets his crop over the course of the entire year, but only gets paid when he sells potatoes. If he plants wheat, he doesn’t need near as much equipment, can hire it custom-harvested, can sell it and get paid right after harvest, and can lock the price in with a contract,” Ehrlich said.
“The only potato contracts that were available this spring were for $5 to $5.25 per hundredweight (100 pounds). The risk involved with growing potatoes is much higher.”
The valley’s potato crop is valued at $174 million.
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Information from: The Pueblo Chieftain,
