Potato Market Crashes in Walla Walla Valley
Local farmers face a grim season as market demand collapses and crops suffer from rot and pests.
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The low point for Walla Walla-grown potatoes was reached today when local produce houses offered but 40 cents per hundredweight to growers. The price of tubers has sagged from 60 cents earlier in the season to the present price through lack of an outside demand and the generally poor quality of valley-grown potatoes. According to local commission houses, potatoes this year are afflicted with everything bad, from the potato bug to the dry rot. Growers are generally despondent over the situation, as hopes of $1 a sack were entertained early in the summer and many refused to sell at prevailing prices. As a result, there is a glut on the market with little demand.
“According to local commission houses, potatoes this year are afflicted with everything bad, from the potato bug to the dry rot.”
Agricultural cycles have always been at the mercy of both biology and global markets, a reality that persists in the Walla Walla region today. While modern farming has seen vast improvements in crop disease management, the volatility of commodity prices remains a recurring anxiety for local growers.
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