Friday, December 25, 2020
CapitalPress.com 7
U.S. potato utilization drops 5.2% as foodservice sags
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Foodservice shutdowns during
the coronavirus pandemic fueled
a 5.2% drop in utilization of U.S.-
grown potatoes for the marketing
year that ended June 30, Potatoes
USA reported.
The total utilization decline, to
about 34.6 billion pounds, takes
into account potatoes and potato
products sold at retail and in food-
service as well as U.S. export and
import volumes.
A 12.6% decrease in foodser-
vice volume and a 2.4% drop in
exports outweighed an 8.7% gain
in retail sales, Potatoes USA said
in a news release. A 6.7% increase
in imports also hurt utilization of
the U.S. crop.
The
decline
occurred at the
end of the market-
ing year and was
measured against
strong sales in the
second half of the
John
previous year, the
Toaspern
national market-
ing group said.
Sales of frozen potato prod-
ucts dropped 10% from July
2019 through June 2020. Potatoes
USA said COVID-19 restrictions
impacted quick-service restaurants
less than full-service restaurants,
as fresh-potato sales to foodservice
fell 19%.
Foodservice sales have been
accounting for a greater share of
total potato sales in the U.S., peak-
ing at 58% in marketing year 2019.
The foodservice share of the mar-
keting year 2020 total dropped to
53%.
Potatoes USA Chief Market-
ing Officer John Toaspern said
foodservice sales recovered some-
what from July through September
2020.
Fry sales at quick-service restau-
rants increased since spring but
remained about 10% below sum-
mer 2019. A lack of non-restau-
rant sales, such as at theme parks
and event venues, continued to
drag on total fry sales.
Fresh potato sales improved
from spring to summer but
remained well below year-earlier
levels.
“Things have been a little more
uncertain this fall,” Toaspern
said. “The big question is how
Feds sued over nixing
grizzlies in Cascades
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The Center for Biologi-
cal Diversity sued the Trump
administration Wednesday
over grizzly bears, alleg-
ing the Interior Department
illegally canceled plans to
release bears into the North
Cascades.
The federal suit, filed in the
District of Columbia, comes
one month before a change in
White House administrations.
“We definitely hope that
the Biden administration will
reconsider the Trump admin-
istration’s decision to termi-
nate the restoration plan,”
Center for Biological Diver-
sity attorney Andrea Zac-
cardi said. “Grizzly bears are
not going to recover without a
plan for restoration.”
The suit names Inte-
rior Secretary David Bern-
hardt, the U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service and the National
Park Service. Efforts to
obtain comment from the
Interior Department were
unsuccessful.
Terry Tollefsbol/USFWS
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Trump admin-
istration Dec. 16 in the District of Columbia for dropping
plans to release grizzly bears into the North Cascades.
Bernhardt
announced
July 7 in Omak, Wash., that
the federal agencies were
dropping plans to capture
and release grizzly bears in
north-central Washington.
Bernhardt cited local
opposition to reintroduc-
ing grizzlies to the region.
He made the announcement
to an invited group of cat-
tlemen, farmers and elected
officials.
The North Cascades are
one of six federal grizzly
bear “recovery zones,” but
no grizzly has been seen in
the Cascades south of the
Canadian border since 1996.
The suit alleges the Trump
administration violated its
obligation under the Endan-
gered Species Act to con-
serve grizzly bears, a threat-
ened species.
Furthermore, the agen-
cies broke the National Envi-
ronmental Policy Act and
Administrative Procedure
Act by failing to adequately
explain the decision, the suit
claims.
quickly the recovery is going to
occur, and when restaurants are
going to start reopening.”
Demand in the foodservice
segment could start to improve
in late winter and early spring as
the weather warms and as more
vaccine gets out to the public, he
said.
Idaho Potato Commission
Foodservice Vice President Alan
Kahn said IPC is “thinking now
about, longer term, when things
return to a somewhat normal state,
how to help our customers drive
volume.”
Now, “a significant percentage
of the population still does not feel
comfortable dining in at a restau-
rant,” he said. Sit-down restau-
rants that typically order 40- and
50-count cartons of larger pota-
Idaho water-quality trading
legislation to be proposed
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
The Idaho Water Users Association
wants the state to endorse and help carry
out water-quality trading.
IWUA Executive Director and Gen-
eral Counsel Paul Arrington said the
group plans to propose a bill and a joint
resolution. The 2021 Idaho Legislature
is scheduled to start Jan. 11.
The bill would authorize the state
Department of Environmental Qual-
ity to establish and operate volun-
tary water-quality trading programs.
The resolution would be a non-binding
statement that the Legislature supports
water-quality trading as a concept.
Water-quality trading establishes a
tangible value as a means of exchange.
It aims to encourage upstream improve-
ments that reduce the need for more
expensive treatment downstream. The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
supports it on a watershed scale.
Arrington said several settle-
ment-pond projects, aiming to improve
water quality in the Snake River or trib-
utaries, have been planned or completed
in southern Idaho. They can be expen-
sive, as land, equipment and permits
must be obtained.
Water-quality
trad-
ing has the potential
to create more oppor-
tunity for projects, he
said. A potential exam-
ple involves a city’s total
Paul
maximum-daily-load
Arrington
permit that authorizes
wastewater discharge per
Clean Water Act requirements.
“A city treats water, releases it, and
it finds its way back into the river,”
Arrington said. “Sometimes the cost
of installing additional water treatment
facilities can be exorbitant, and small
communities can’t bear that burden.
If you can go spend a couple hundred
thousand to build one of these ponds to
reduce loading from a different source,
you can use that to offset what would
have been cleaned at the treatment
facility.”
State law allows water-quality
trading.
“This simply would be formalizing
this opportunity in Idaho,” Arrington
said. “This is just another tool in the
toolbox as these groups are working to
improve the water quality of the Snake
River and the (tributary) Boise River.”
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toes “are struggling because their
business in large part depends
on consumers dining inside the
restaurant.”
Distributors tell IPC that their
business is “completely dynamic”
depending on the state they are in
and the restrictions imposed on
restaurants, Kahn said.
Potatoes USA said retail-sales
changes for the marketing year
ended June 30 included an increase
of 15% for frozen and dehydrated
products, a 9.5% gain for fresh —
the industry has moved some food-
service-bound fresh potatoes into
the retail channel — and a 5.5%
increase for chips.
Toaspern said summer retail
sales did not match the spring
surge but remained 10-15% above
year-earlier levels.
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