Voigt: Despite Challenges I’m Optimistic About 2018

For most potato farmers across the Northwest, the last five years have been challenging.  And while 2018 holds several challenges itself, Chris Voigt, executive Director of the Washington state Potato Commission says he’s encouraged by what he sees.  Demand for Northwest potatoes continues to grow overseas, which allows local growers to produce more spuds.

“Which is going to be a challenging for us quite frankly because we’ve run out of good ground to grow potatoes on so, now we’ve got to figure out how can we increase yields on the existing ground or how can we get more water out to dryland to essentially put new ground into production.

And while that creates additional pressure on producers, he says the prospects of additional profits is exciting.  As far as challenges, Voigt told the Washington Ag Network he’s concerned about trade moving forward.  He said many Northwest growers are still hurting from the 2015 port slowdown which cost the industry millions of dollars as well as market share.

He added walking away from TPP was bad for local growers, and the lack of bilateral trade talks now is concerning.

“What we’re concerned with now is the European Union, New Zealand, and other countries, Australia, are negotiating free trade agreements and we’re not, so we’re going to be left behind in the dust and really potentially could lose a lot of our existing customers because the U.S. has chosen not to participate in some of these trade deals.”

Voigt said it will also be important for the Farm Bill to be passed on time to ensure vital research continues.

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