Last Month of the Season

We are headed down home stretch.

Storage season (northern hemisphere- apologies to those of you in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other southern points) is drawing to a close, 30-60 days of processing are left for most plants. Defects are getting worse, lots of rot. Retaining workers is a sore issue. Life in the potato lane!

We have seen lots of change since the new crop started coming in. The economy was growing with no end in sight then; just a few weeks later- BOOM, the market is in free-fall, salaries, jobs and benefits are being cut, it is a whole new landscape.

The restaurant market slowed, retail expanded. People are eating at home more. No big surprise.

Then the dollar weakens. Production is shifted from the US to other countries. Canada, EU. Australia gets hit by reduced overall demand. Potato blight breaks into Ireland, zebra chips down under.

But, through it all, there is no real cliff to fall from. Because we are talking about potatoes. Tasty, low-cost nutrition. People eat them and always will. Sometimes one segment or the other tweaks up or down. But we work in a relatively stable industry, one that others would envy. You don't want to be working in autos today. Or the computer chip industry. We are on solid ground.

Stumble It!

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