Re: [gardeners] Re:potato prices

George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 25 Feb 1999 12:28:40 -0600 

Penny Nielsen wrote:

> Depends very much on the type of potato.  DH likes Yukon Gold and because last year's harvest was way down, I had to pay $2.99 for a 5 lb bag.  I usually pay that for a 10 lb bag.  Last time I bought a 50 lb. bag of regular taters it cost be about $5 or $6. They're prouting so have to throw the rest away.  Few years back potato farmers loaded up their trucks and came into town to give away their potatoes in protest for the low prices they were being paid for them.
>
> This past fall turkey farmers were talking about going out of business cause it cost them more to raise them than they were getting paid by the processors.  Price to the consumer was no less than before tho so someone sure is making a killing.  Same goes for gas prices here.  Price of gasoline has dropped a lot within the last year, but we haven't seen any drop in prices.  As a matter of fact, last summer they put the price up because for a very very short period, I believe, the price of a barrel of oil went up a bit slightly.  When it went back down, the prices at the pump remained the same.  I believe there should be govt. intervention to force these companies to lower their prices instead of ripping off the consumers.  Not enough competition in smaller cities and in rural communities.  Same goes for credit card companies and banks in Canada.
>
> Off the band wagon.
>
> Penny
> Nielsenp@gov.ns.ca
> Halifax, Nova Scotia, Zone 5/6a
> http://explore.gov.ns.ca/
>
> >>> bsk <bsk@brightok.net> 02/24/99 04:10PM >>>
>     I just bought a 15 pound badg of white potatoes for 1.99 at Homeland in
> central Oklahoma.
>
> bsk
> -------------------
>
>  margaret lauterbach wrote:
>
> > > What are potato prices like in your supermarkets?

A large portion of the cost of commodities is in transportation. I live in SW Louisiana so taters are generally high, ie 79 cents a lb for large bakers. Gasoline, on the other hand, is 69.9 cents per gallon at the cut rate stations and as much as 85.9 at the major brands. Generally you can get gasoline for between 74.9 and 78.9 about anywhere. Rice is really cheap, don't ever look at the price but it's less than a dollar for 5 lbs. We grow rice, cattle, soybeans, and pump oil down here. Not much truck gardening around except for a few folks who do it small time. Another big crop in the spring/summer is watermelons and sweet potatoes in the fall. Crawfish are in season from about January to June and prices range between 69 cents and a dollar a pound on the hoof, so to speak. Cost of living in the U.S. is based on costs to live in New Yawk City with
NYC as 100% and other cities at a percentage of that. I think Austin, TX is still probably one of the cheapest places to live in the US. Of course property and other taxes enter into the equation too. Property taxes are cheap here but we pay a small income tax to the state and have an 8.75% sales tax. We pay for this in bad roads, bad schools, and really bad state and local politicians.

George, stepping down off the soap box and going out to plant something