Heat and rainfall this summer have created the optimal growing conditions for potatoes, according to the executive director for Potatoes New Brunswick.
Matt Hemphill says the crop went in the ground two weeks earlier than last year, but he is cautiously optimistic.
“That being said, I have seen harvest season come along here in another month and the rain clouds open up and it doesn’t stop raining for the month of September. So we certainly aren’t out of the woods yet, because we have to get the crop out of the ground and we have to get the potatoes into storage,” Hemphill says.
He is also feeling optimistic with restaurants and sports reopening, and processors have told him demand for product is currently up.
“During the pandemic, it was a disaster, we couldn’t predict anything for food services. What we are being told by the processors is demand is up. Hockey rinks and basketball courts are starting to fill up again so the demand is there,” Hemphill says.
“If Mother Nature cooperates, and supply and demand is in balance, it is business as usual. What we don’t want to see is another variant of COVID-19 come through and we will start to see restaurants and sporting events start to close down and we are sitting on a glut of potatoes.”
Hemphill says that is the same challenge they had in the previous year. They had to donate a lot of potatoes to food banks, others were made into potato flakes and the remainder was turned into cattle feed due to the pandemic closures.
