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September 1, 2017 Subscribe to our weekly Idaho email newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters Produce manager joins IPC retail team By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press EAGLE, Idaho — As a produce manager with Marsh Supermarkets, Dave Rhodes found it paid to make time for his Idaho Potato Commission sales representative. “I felt that there was always some type of value he brought to the table every time he came in,” said Dave Rhodes Rhodes, who learned market trends, competitors’ strategies and tips for growing the fresh potato category from the IPC official. Now Rhodes, 57, will be the one delivering informa- tion to help produce managers move more Idaho spuds. In mid-August, Rhodes joined the Idaho Potato Com- mission as its retail promotion director for the Northeast, based in Indianapolis. He’s re- placing Ken Tubman, who is retiring after a 15-year career with IPC. He has more than 40 years of experience in the produce industry, tracing back to 1977 when he joined Marsh as a service clerk. “I think I have that side of knowledge, being on the re- tail side for so many years,” Rhodes said. “I always val- ued the guys more who had worked retail and could com- municate with me on that same level.” Rhodes said he also fa- vored the Idaho potato brand, which his store considered to be a higher-quality product than regionally grown spuds and priced at a premium. Rhodes spent a year in col- lege before joining the Marine Corps and completing a four- year tour. He then returned to Marsh, becoming a produce manager before leaving to join a Mich- igan supermarket chain. He was recruited back to Marsh in 1999, and was ultimately promoted to vice president of produce and floral for the chain in 2007. Marsh had 120 locations in Indiana and Ohio at its peak but has sold or closed all of its stores. In his new role with IPC, Rhodes will be the “eyes and ears of the Idaho shippers,” explained Seth Pemsler, IPC’s vice president of retail and international programs. In addition to providing market insight to shippers, Pemsler’s three retail team members meet with every major retailer about twice per year. “They travel three out of four weeks per month visiting customers, or attending re- gional trade shows,” Pemsler said. Last year, Pemsler said the potato commission signifi- cantly increased the volume of data it purchases to high- light market trends for gro- cers. “We’re figuring out what sorts of reports to bring in,” Pemsler said. “We’ll have data availability for many more customers and many more markets than in the past.” Based on the team’s ef- forts, Pemsler said more retailers are running adver- tising singling out Idaho po- tatoes, and the Idaho Potato Lovers Month promotion has grown to include more than 5,000 participating stores. Rhodes and his wife, Angela, have been married for 33 years and have two grown children, Megan and Kyle. In his free time, Rhodes serves on the football coach- ing staff at Warren Central High School in Indianapolis, which has the nation’s 19th ranked team. He also coach- es a youth traveling football team. CapitalPress.com 9 Idaho Agriculture’s importance growing By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press BOISE — A University of Idaho report shows that farm- ing’s contribution to Idaho’s overall economy is continu- ing to grow. Not too many years ago, with the high-tech manu- facturing sector booming in Idaho, some people assumed agriculture was a dinosaur whose importance was on the wane, said UI Agricultural Economist Garth Taylor. “That just simply has not been true,” Taylor said. “Ag- riculture is big and we’re growing; we’re not declin- ing.” That is backed up by the UI report, “Economic Con- tribution of Idaho Agribusi- ness.” The report, based on 2014 data, is an update of a pre- vious report based on 2012 data. The latest version shows that agriculture directly and indirectly is responsible for 16 percent of the state’s to- tal Gross Domestic Product. That’s up from 14 percent in the previous report. “Agriculture is still a pow- erhouse in the state’s econo- Sean Ellis/Capital Press File Hay is cut in a field near Kuna, Idaho, on June 27. A University of Idaho report shows that agriculture’s contribution to the state economy is continuing to grow. my despite the weakening ag economy in the United States overall,” Taylor said. Taylor said it’s no surprise that agriculture is big in Ida- ho; everybody knows that. But a deeper dig into the data shows a not-so-well-known story. GDP from production agriculture has grown twice as fast as the state’s over- all GDP since 1997 while the food processing sector’s percentage of state GDP has increased slightly during that time. The report was authored by Philip Watson, an associ- ate professor in UI’s Depart- ment of Agricultural Eco- nomics and Rural Sociology. It is based on several sources, including data from USDA and the U.S. Bureau of Eco- nomic Analysis. It shows that Idaho ag- riculture was responsible for $27.8 billion in sales in 2014, up from $25.1 billion in 2012, as well as 128,200 jobs, up from 124,000. “That’s certainly a sizable amount of Idaho’s economy,” Watson said. Watson said that before the recent recession, many people assumed high-tech manufacturing would re- place agriculture as the most important part of the state’s economy. “That hasn’t materialized yet,” he said, adding that ag- riculture has strengthened its hold on that top spot since the recession. “Tech manu- facturing took a hit during the recession and agriculture didn’t. It hasn’t been boom- ing like agriculture has.” UI Agricultural Econ- omist Ben Eborn said that while the latest report is great news, it should be noted that 2014 was a record year for Idaho agriculture in terms of total farm cash receipts. Still, he added, agricul- ture’s importance to the state’s economy should re- main large in the next report, which will be based on 2016 data. “It’s not going to change much,” Eborn said. “Agri- culture is still going to be a major, major factor in our economy.” The report also shows that agriculture is much more im- portant to Idaho’s economy than it is to the economies of surrounding states, even ru- ral, ag-driven ones. Agriculture’s share of Idaho’s economy is 10.5 times greater than in Neva- da, 4.75 times greater than in Wyoming, four times greater than in Utah, 3.75 times greater than in Wash- ington, three times greater than in Oregon and 1.75 times greater than in Mon- tana. 35-3/#4N