Idaho potato growers will converge on Idaho Falls today at 1 p.m. for what is scheduled to be the last in a series of meetings for a self-help potato diversion program.
Gary Bingham, director of the Potato Management Company, said meetings in Oregon and Washington last week went well and things looked good.
Growers will be trying to divert 10 million cwt to try to get upward price movement for the remaining portion of the 2000 crop now in storage.
"This has been a huge under taking," Bingham stated. "But one thing remains constant, 90 percent of the growers agree a diversion program is needed."
Today's meeting is scheduled to be the last and one at which if enough are signed up the program should advance. If in the minds of the PMC the volume is not there, the program will be disbanded.
Bingham said he came away from the Klamath Basin, OR, meeting with 46 different farms signed up and growers interesting in going forward.
"The vast majority in the industry know this is exactly what they need to do," he said.