Decision due to increased contracts, not lawsuit, co-op leader says

By JOHN O'CONNELL

Capital Press

The head of United Potato Growers of America said his decision not to promote specific planting guidelines for the 2012 crop is unrelated to a federal lawsuit challenging his organization's supply management efforts.

Rather, Jerry Wright, UPGA president and chief executive officer, said he made the choice because circumstances have arisen to make effective supply management too difficult.

Due to increased contracting by Western processors, grower tendencies to plant a bit more than contracts require and the likelihood of a longer growing season, Wright concluded, "It's not probable that the growers will be able to control this."

Wright declined to comment on the federal lawsuit, filed in Pocatello by potato buyers including Jamestown, N.Y.-based Brigotta's Farmland Produce and Garden Center, against the co-op, some individual growers, and processors.

UPGA, based in Salt Lake City, consists of regional cooperatives in 10 states.

The plaintiffs described UPGA as a "potato cartel," alleging defendants "conspired to fix, raise, maintain and stabilize the price of fresh potatoes in the United States starting as early as 2004."

The defendants argued their actions were protected under the Capper-Volstead Act of 1922, which grants associations of agricultural producers certain exemptions from antitrust laws.

Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled in December against dismissing the case based on that defense, writing: "The court concludes that acreage reductions, production restrictions and collusive crop planning are not activities protected by the Capper-Volstead Act."

Winmill also removed several farmers and companies from the list of defendants based on a lack of evidence linking them to the alleged conspiracy.

The plaintiffs filed an amended motion Jan. 31 with revised information seeking to have most of those defendants reinstated.

Absent a formal planting strategy, UPGA has issued advice to growers on its website, suggesting they convert a portion of their potato acreage to an alternative crop this season.

"If the crop returns to trend-line yield, which one assumes is going to happen, there is going to be serious overproduction," Wright said in his posting.

He fears a repeat of 2009, when growers dumped more than 7 million hundredweight of potatoes in cattle feed.

"With no change anticipated in total planted potato acres from 2011 to 2012, a return to trend-line yield alone will produce a 5.5 percent increase in total U.S. production," Wright wrote. "Expect greatest increases to occur in Washington and Idaho where seed for fresh market varieties is readily available."

UPGA member Randy Hardy, of Oakley, Idaho, plans to maintain his current acreage based on his commitment to his fresh potato cooperative, Sun Valley Potatoes.

Hardy is not convinced the upcoming growing season will be plagued by overproduction.

"Here in Idaho for fresh growers our price isn't spectacular, and it hasn't been all year," Hardy said. "I don't see fresh growers in Idaho with competitive crops out there getting too carried away with planting."