09/02/05 United`s nat`l effort exceeds expectation

Albert Wada has twelve thousand acres of potatoes about ready to harvest. But Wada Farms at Pingree is growing about 25 hundred fewer acres this year. Wada gets a lot of the credit from other Idaho growers for helping to form a co-op which has helped to limit production. WADA - "Now we're about 80 to 85 percent of the fresh production in Idaho and we recently aligned with SIPCO, the Southern Idaho Potato Cooperative which is the processed marketing cooperative in Idaho. So we have collectively, processed and fresh, we probably represent 80 to 85 percent of all the acres in Idaho." United Fresh Potato Growers didn't stop in Idaho. They got acreage reductions after convincing growers in other states and in Canada to join the effort. WADA - "54 percent in the country was in the hands of United and probably 75 percent of the reduction in Idaho was in the hands of United and 25 percent of the reduction in Canada." Wada says the national and Canadian efforts exceeded all expectations and is so successful that they're going to be looking for a new chief executive. Jerry Wright, the current Idaho CEO is also United's national director but Wada says the two jobs have simply become too big for one person to handle. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott