Sober outlook faces potato producers
McCain lays off 10% of Portage workforce, cuts price offered to farmers
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/05/2010 (5712 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
McCain Foods is laying off about 10 per cent of its workforce in Portage la Prairie this fall and Manitoba potato producers are expecting a leaner crop year.
About 40 people out of a workforce of about 400 at McCain’s in Portage are expected to be laid off.
Company and industry officials say the layoffs are a result of declining french-fry demand which is also leading to lower prices and lower volumes for producers.
Potato producers were to meet Friday evening in Portage la Prairie to discuss the latest contract offer from McCain after two earlier proposals were rejected.
Garry Sloik, executive director of Keystone Vegetable Producers Association, said the strong Canadian dollar and softening consumer demand are driving down prices that french-fry processors are prepared to pay as well as the volume of potatoes they are contracting from the producers.
Potato producers in Manitoba will plant about 72,000 acres this year, down from 79,000 last year. Peak production was in 2003 when producers planted about 103,000 acres of potatoes in Manitoba.
Sloik said this year processors are offering around $9.50 per 100 pounds of potatoes. Last year, they paid between $11 and $11.50 per 100 pounds.
Calla Farn, a spokeswoman for McCain Foods at its Florenceville, N.B., offices, said the layoffs at its Portage la Prairie plant represent the elimination of one shift.
"We are experiencing challenges in the export market because of the lower cost of raw potatoes in Europe and a softening of consumer demand in the U.S.," she said. "The recession in the U.S. means people are not eating out as much as they were."
In addition to the Portage la Prairie plant, McCain owns another plant in Carberry that makes french fries exclusively for McDonald’s Restaurants. It employs about 250 people. Simplot Foods also employs about 250 at its french-fry plant, also in Portage la Prairie.
Sloik said Simplot reduced its production in 2009, but McCain held off until this crop year. Sloik and Farn said the Carberry plant is not expecting layoffs.
There are about 85 potato producers in Manitoba and about 75 per cent of the provincial production it sold to the french fry producers. Sloik said the Old Dutch potato chip plant in Winnipeg is supplied by three producers.
martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca