Lane Nordlund of the Montana Ag Network is in Las Vegas reporting from the 2020 Potato Expo, and on Thursday he talked with Dan Lake of Ronan.
Lake is a former president of the National Potato Council and talked about some of the issues impacting the U.S. potato industry.
Lake: "There's exhibitors here in people here from all across the world really and showcasing their products. It's a great venue to to come and meet and catch. Catch up with with people some of these people I only get to see once a year when I come here. This is the place to be if you're in a potato industry right now, the U.S. Potato industry is valued at four billion dollars and export opportunities continues to provide growth for the industry. It's growing and exporting into other countries is continuing to grow a lot of effort being put into it through the Potatoes USA groups and the council, we're always promoting to get more potatoes exported out of this country and create market opportunities."
“We’re really strong in our seed quality and a lot of our potatoes then get used to plant the commercial crops or even sometimes the seed crops in Idaho and other surrounding states,” said Lake. “For the most part, Montana provides over 50% of the seed used to plant the Columbia Basin.”
This year's Potato Expo hit the jackpot in terms of breaking an all-time attendance record with more than 2,000 attendees. Click here to visit the official website .
For more information about the U.S potato industry you can visit the National Potato Council’s website at www.nationalpotatocouncil.org .
