Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1490779
46 POTATO GROWER | FEBRUARY 2023 Imagine captaining a sailing ship in the era of Christopher Columbus. It was bad enough that locomotion depended on wind and sea currents but compounding the situation was sailing into uncharted waters dependent upon such unpredict- able elements. And what about hidden sand bars and rocky ledges lurking just beneath the water's surface? Putting these unknowns together, imagine the difficulties that Columbus and fellow explorers dealt with as they went about charting the seas. We know about Columbus, da Gama and Magellan because they are the ones who made it back. Making it back was not that easy using such crude navigation systems. If you haven't seen it, Google the late comedian Flip Wil- son's Christopher Columbus routine. In his famous routine, Chris, as Wilson calls Columbus, cautions the sailor steering the ship across a square world—not a round one—to keep an eye out for the edge. His quote: "Watch out for the edge! We don't want to sail off the edge like them other guys!" Not unlike Columbus, potato producers today, and for the foreseeable future, are sailing through uncharted economic waters with no wish to sail off the edge. No one in business in the United States today has experienced year after year 10-12 percent inflation. Recent governmental monetary policy combined with the Federal Reserve's interest rate shifts has certainly created unclear crosswinds and the potential for hidden sandbars. So, what can one do to minimize inflation's effect upon one's family, one's farm and one's business? The first and most obvious step is to anticipate perpetual cost increases in crop inputs and put in place steps to assure commensurate perpetual valuations of one's potato crop. How is this done? Knowing that the supply/demand equation is the Holy Grail of all production businesses, immersing oneself in the numbers that balance that equation in potato production is the first step. Idaho is a good example: the state reduced 2022 potato crop acreage by more than 7 percent and has also sig- nificantly increased their crop's value. Idaho did this without jeopardizing supply to the consumer or to the processor. Any raw product buyer could have contracted any amount of raw product at any time prior to planting. Any business caught with less than a desired amount of raw product has no one to blame, certainly not the producer. Who is more anxious to satisfy his market than a potato producer? If your potato-producing operation is operating at a profit, it is doing so because the supply/demand equation is balanced. Knowing this is like giving Columbus detailed oceanic charts, radar, sonar, a GPS guidance system, and installing diesel en- gines in the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Be grateful that supply/demand data exists sufficient to return your farm safely home every year until this storm subsides. If your potato-producing operation is operating at a profit, it is doing so because the supply/demand equation is balanced. Uncharted Waters We don't want to sail off the edge United Potato Growers of America Buzz Shahan Chief Operating Officer