Strong harvest defies initial predictions
It was throwing a dart at a wall. (Farmers) had to guess what to plant for this coming year because they didn’t know what the demand was going to be. (Their decision) is going to affect the industry for the next three or four years. Terrence Hochstein, ex
Alberta potato growers are banking on a healthy harvest after COVID -19 decimated their supply system this spring.
Russell Van Boom, a seed potato farmer near Fort Saskatchewan, said he planted 90 per cent of his crops this year compared to last. He was anticipating slower demand come harvest time after processing plants and restaurants were temporarily closed or operating at reduced capacity to comply with health orders.
“Many of the seed farms have been left with a whole bunch of extra seed and product and we’re in the middle of dumping those out in our field to be buried next week,” he said in mid-june.
For Van Boom, who sells seed potatoes to potato growers, the provincial relaunch came too late to adjust how much he could plant.
“We’re going to harvest what we harvest and that’s the case for both types of farmers, for seed farmers like us and for commercial farms that grow either for french fries or for fresh potatoes that you’d buy at a grocery store.”
Terrence Hochstein, executive director of Potato Growers of Alberta, said the pandemic has cost seed potato farmers in the province between $4.5 million and $5 million in lost revenue. Alberta’s processing industry in terms of french fry production has decreased about 20 per cent this season compared to last, or approximately 7,500 acres.
In April, the hit to the french fry market was closer to 80 per cent while restaurants were forced to shut their doors. That decrease saw the industry urge Canadians to eat french fries at home to stop potatoes from going to waste.
Hochstein said seed growers like Van Boom had to calculate how hard they would get hit and plant accordingly. “It was throwing a dart at a wall. They had to guess what to plant for this coming year because they didn’t know what the demand was going to be. The decision that the seed growers made is going to affect the industry for the next three or four years.”
With Alberta in Stage 2 of its relaunch plan, Hochstein says potato processing plants are beginning to get back to full capacity and an increase in demand for ordering in or taking out food from restaurants has helped to offset some of the losses during the lockdown.
Van Boom agreed that restaurants beginning to open gives him cautious hope for future markets.
While taking a hit from the pandemic, beef ranchers were able to weather the storm. Rich Smith, executive director of Alberta Beef Producers, said that’s because the health crisis began at a time when ranchers were calving as opposed to selling their animals.
“(Ranchers) already were practising self-isolation because they were so busy,” he said.
The pandemic did disrupt beef processing plants in the province, including the Cargill facility in High River, where nearly 1,000 workers tested positive for the novel coronavirus. However, the plants renovated and were only forced to close for a few weeks after being declared an essential service.
After reopening, the plants began running at limited capacity, including limited shift work and extra precautions. A report on the Alberta Beef Producers website stated that packers continued to limit the amount of beef they were purchasing for the week of June 22.
Despite the lower numbers, Smith said the plants are gradually getting back to PRE-COVID processing numbers.
“The plants have got back rolling again and right now they’re they’re getting close to capacity, full capacity. So that’s really been a benefit for our industry,” Smith said.
Numbers on the Government of Alberta’s website show the pandemic came with lower beef prices, with a drop of 16.9 per cent compared to April 2020, with cattle selling at $122.24 per hundredweight, approximately 112 pounds. That price also marked a decrease from $135.35 per hundredweight in March.
Smith said despite the drop in prices, the impact on the beef industry was mitigated by people who were buying steaks and roasts as a treat to cook at home.
Industry leaders now believe the province’s food systems could help the economy bounce back faster than other industries,