Covid-19: US farmers hand out potato to avoid food waste

Auburn (USA), May 17 

When Tina Yates pulled her truck as much as a mall in western Washington state on Thursday, staff waved her previous a whole bunch of automobiles ready to choose up free russet potatoes.

“You get a VIP pass!” Yates, a bus driver in her 50s, stated the employees hollered, as she loaded 1,800 kilos (816 kg) of potatoes into her grey Chevy Silverado, sure for the Salvation Army, native meals banks and houses all through western Washington.

Giving away meals is only one instance of how individuals around the globe are adjusting to the pressure the coronavirus pandemic has placed on provide chains, as eating places, faculties and lodges shut. With unemployment hovering, demand from meals banks is rising quick on the similar time farmers have fewer retailers to promote their crops.

In Washington, the No. 2 US potato rising state after Idaho, a billion kilos of russet potatoes, usually processed into french fries and hash browns, are sitting in warehouses that will sometimes be emptying forward of the July harvest, the Washington State Potato Commision stated.

Instead, the group is handing out the excess without cost in brown sacks, 100,000 kilos at a time.

“Everyone in Washington would have to eat about 500 pounds of potatoes from now until the 4th of July to clear out that pipeline,” stated Brandy Tucker, the fee’s director of promoting.

Around 90% of Washington potatoes are processed for meals service, practically half for worldwide markets. Potato producers in Europe have additionally confronted monumental surpluses.

The fee is planning greater than a dozen donation occasions by the tip of May. But even gifting away potatoes comes with the price of washing, bagging and delivery.

The US Department of Agriculture is making an attempt to chip away on the mountain of produce unable to get to shoppers. This week it stated it will purchase a further $470 million in meals, together with $50 million in potatoes to offer to meals banks.

Farmers corresponding to Adam Weber, a 3rd technology grower at Weber Farms in Quincy, Washington, say it’s higher to offer away potatoes than dump them.

“If the price is well below what it costs to grow them, do you just sit on them for a while and hope things turn around? Or just go from $200 dollars down to $30 (per ton). That’s how drastic the price has changed,” he stated.

Weber stated he’ll plant 1,000 fewer acres on his 6,500 acre farm this 12 months due to decrease demand from processing firms. Some canceled complete contracts, in accordance with Tucker from the potato fee.

“They (potato growers) are going to be holding the bag,” stated Weber. — Reuters