- by Tad Thompson | August 31, 2020
The 2020 Wisconsin fresh potato crop quality for Bushmans’ Inc. “looks fantastic,” according to Michael Carter, the firm’s CEO. “The size is good.”
On Aug. 10, which was Bushmans’ first day to harvest new-crop Russets, he said, “Two weeks ago, I would have said this crop was going to be a bin buster. But we’ve had a little bit of heat. Now conventional wisdom says we’ll have an average-sized crop.”
Are bin busters good or bad?
“You never know how greater supplies will impact the overall prices. But we like having plenty of product. But this still looks nice,” he said. In early August the high temperatures in Wisconsin were 86 degrees F.
Cooler temperatures were due in mid-August “which will be great for bulking up the spud size,” he said.
He added that because of the COVID-19 crisis, it is tough to tell what the market will be for fresh market potatoes this fall, because of “not knowing what the foodservice industry will look like in a few months.”
The retail business was up significantly for Bushmans’ before finishing the 2019 storage crop in the last week of July. Retail compensated for lost foodservice sales, “which took a hit, and fell to next to nothing,” said Carter.
“Later this year if a second wave of coronavirus comes to fruition, it would definitely have an impact on potato markets.”
This spring and summer, Bushmans’ made minor operational adjustments for COVID-19 health precautions, but “it hasn’t radically affected our production or sales. It was just more complicated,” he said. “The two hardest parts of this business are starting up and stopping.”
Bushmans’ expected to be ramping up volume into late August. The crop can’t be rushed, as Carter noted that growers kill the tops of potato plants three weeks before harvest to let skins “set,” which is hardening to avoid damage in the harvesting process, or breakdown during storage.
“We’ll have a big volume in two weeks. We’ll be ginned up pretty good. We’ll be going full steam,” he said.
Carter added that his firm is not rushing into the deal because of the market presence from shippers in other areas, who are shipping either new or old crop potatoes. “We’ll lay in the weeds and wait for our turn,” he said.
For this season, Bushmans’ potato harvest was expected to wrap up around Oct. 7-10, which is when hard frosts usually can be expected to strike Rosholt, WI, where the firm is based.
Photo: Mike Carter
August 31, 2020 at 06:27PM
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Bushmans' Wisconsin potato quality 'fantastic' - The Produce News
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