Simplot in Portage to cut hours as potato shortage looms

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This article was published 28/02/2012 (5043 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SOME employees at the Simplot potato- processing plant in Portage la Prairie will see their hours cut in coming months due to a looming shortage of locally grown processing potatoes, industry officials say.

Simplot spokesman David Cuoio said the Idaho-based food-processing giant has begun shifting some production from its Portage plant to other plants it owns in the U.S. Pacific Northwest rather than import potatoes to Manitoba to make up for the shortfall.

As a result, some workers will see their hours reduced, Cuoio said, although no one will be laid off.

“Our managers have come up with some very creative ways to ensure our employees are not laid off.”

Cuoio wouldn’t say when the cutback in hours will occur or how many of the plant’s 280 employees will be affected.

“We anticipate being able to return to normal production levels at the Portage plant later this year, presuming Mother Nature will co-operate and the supply of raw potatoes will be adequate,” he said.

It was bad weather — flooding and too much rain in the spring, drought conditions in the summer and an early fall frost — that led to a big drop in potato production last year in Manitoba.

Although Simplot has opted to temporarily shift production elsewhere, an industry official said the province’s other big potato processor, McCain Foods Canada, has decided to import potatoes from Washington state and maintain regular production levels at its two plants in Portage and Carberry.

Garry Sloik, manager of the Keystone Potato Producers Association, said that will enable McCain to avoid layoffs or reductions in hours.

Portage la Prairie Mayor Earl Porter said that’s also what Portage officials have been told.

“McCain said it will be full-bore,” Porter said, adding: “We haven’t heard from Simplot.”

McCain spokeswoman Calla Farn confirmed in an email the company expects to import U.S. potatoes this summer to tide it over until the 2012 Manitoba crop is ready in August.

Sloik said McCain told the association it has enough locally grown potatoes to last until the last week or two in June, so it should only have to import spuds for about six weeks.

Last month, when the shortage was first disclosed, he said this will be the first time in more than two decades Manitoba has had to import potatoes.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca