While he maintains there will be a market for potatoes well into the future, Ghislain Pelletier predicts the future of the industry will bear little resemblance to the past.
The global vice-president for agronomy for McCain Foods was one of the keynote speakers at the recent annual meeting of the PEI Potato Board. Pelletier told the meeting he has spent virtually his entire life in the industry as he grew up on a farm near Grand Falls, New Brunswick.
Pelletier noted potatoes are a highly productive crop that can be grown in a number of climates. They are also one of the most healthy, offering more nutrition value than crops like rice when compared on a per acre basis.
“The demand for potatoes will grow in developing countries,” he predicted. “The size of the global potato consumption pie will grow but the producer’s share will change.”
