This just in from Crampton’s Market (in Winnipeg, Manitoba), via Beverley and Lois — “Bad News for Manitoba Potato Eaters…. and Growers“:
Once again, it's the little guy who gets shafted in this supply management "power play". Pic from Suderman Bros. Farms, one of Manitoba's big potato growers.
“We were supposed to receive 2 more deliveries of those beautiful small new crop potatoes this week. That was before Peak of the Market served my farmer with a cease and desist order. The farmer ignored the papers served to him at first. Then Peak of the Market lawyers showed up at his door with fines unless he stopped marketing his potato crop. This left him with the choice of harvesting the crop to give away to foodbanks, or to destroy the potato crop. The purported fine was for lot of money so my potato farmer destroyed some of his fields by tilling them up, and harvested the remainder of the crop, delivering it to a hutterite colony nearby.
So right you you are probably wondering what the FRICK is going on!! I’ll bet that you all thought that Peak of the Market supported small Manitoba farmers, that is what is implied in their TV commercials. Here’s the scoop.
Peak of the Market family fun day. Window dressing for a food monopoly?
Peak of the Market legally controls potato production in Manitoba. Until this year, farmers who did not grow potatoes for Peak of the Market were allowed to grow 4 acres of potatoes to sell on their own. This year Peak of the Market changed the rules as of July 15th. Now farmers are not allowed to grow potatoes to sell unless they have a Peak of the Market quota and sell only to Peak of the Market. This includes small gardeners who wish to sell at farmers markets, as well as farmers who wish to sell to independent grocery stores like mine. It is now illegal to grow and sell your own potatoes in Manitoba. Peak of the Market has the legal authority to fine farmers who break these rules, and the fines are high.
More "little guys" at Peak of the Market family fun day. PoM photo
Because I still want to purchase potatoes from local small independant farmers, I will no longer be posting where our potatoes come from, and I will be telling neither my staff nor my customers the names of the farmers who produce them. This is to protect these growers from Peak of the Market legal action.
Here’s the kicker. It is legal for these local farmers to import potatoes from BC, Alberta, Ontario, or the US for resale. But they can’t legally grow their own potato crops to sell.
This action by Peak of the Market to protect their monopoly outrages me. But every action of theirs has been legal! You should be mad too. WRITE TO YOUR MLA, click the link below to find your MLA’s contact details”
http://www.manitoba.ca/legislature/members/alphabetical.html
This story is also reprinted and commented on here, on NewWinnipeg.com
Comments from that posting:
Eastsider: Thats total bull, and I know that for a fact. My brother works for a 4000 acre potato farm in southern MB, they have a contract with McCain’s, NOT Peak Of The Market. I know theres at least 3 other large potato farms out there, I cannot speak for those but I definitely know about Suderman Bros Farms near Winkler. And to even suggest they are being forced to destroy crops is laughable at best.
Shaynelle: Sorry, my bad. I meant to say this is a newsletter from Crampton’s market. Like I said, I’m sure this isn’t the whole story but I can’t imagine them lying about this. Whichever it is, I hope it comes out in the news and soon. I can’t imagine a news cast not wanting to do a story on this (if there is indeed truth to it).
Potato harvest at Suderman Bros. Farms in Manitoba
Eastsider: Just to confirm what I said I phoned my brother after supper……Suderman Bros Farms definitely sells about 60% of their crop to McCains @ Portage La Prairie, the remaining 40% is sold to the USA market. Southern Potato, another large outfit in southern MB has contracts with Old Dutch Potato Chips, Hostess Foods, Naleway Foods,Peak Of The Market, and the remainder is sold to the USA.He said they have set contracts written up prior to spring seeding, if they are unable to fulfill the quota on the contract they have to purchase potatos from other farms to make up the shortfall. He has never not ever heard of anyone having to destroy their crops, and POM definitely does not have the Manitoba Monopoly on spuds. Someone better get their facts right before they defame a fine company like POM.
And now, here’s a story on the same issue from a mainstream news outlet, the Winnipeg Free Press, titled “Peak of the Market, potato farmer square off“, by Bartley Kives:
“A small Manitoba potato farmer claims he’s being forced underground by rules that re quire all provincial spuds to be sold through Peak of the Market.
In August, the provincial vegetable marketing board sent Otterburne-area farmer Trevor Schriemer a “potato general order” that requires him to document where his taters were travelling after learning he was selling some of his crop to Sobey’s, a na tional chain. Under Manitoba regula tions, all potato farmers must sell their spuds through Peak of the Market, which charges a small levy in exchange for the ability to pool, brand and market their produce.
More fun at Peak of the Market's family fun day. PoM photo
Now Schriemer claims he’s been warned not to sell potatoes anywhere, not even at the farmers’ markets, small groceries and roadside stands where he says he sells most of his product.
“They told me nobody is allowed to sell potatoes unless they are a registered grower through Peak of the Market,” said Schriemer, owner of Schriemer Family Farms, whose crop mostly consists of the small creamer potatoes sought out by foodies at farmers’ markets and specialty stores.
In the lingo of industrial marketing, small, thin-skinned spuds are called “immature potatoes.” Peak of the Market, which typically sells larger, thick-skinned spuds that mature later in the season, sent Schriemer an order after finding out he sold some more substantial potatoes to Sobeys.
“Ninety per cent of my market is small potatoes. This year I happened to have marketed my large potatoes to a couple of Sobey’s stores, and that was a horrible thing, apparently,” he said. “Now they’re telling me I can’t even sell potatoes in a shack on my own property.”
Peak of the Market, which supplies retailers and restaurants with 120 varieties of Manitoba veggies grown by 40 different producers, has typ ically ignored small producers and retailers in the past, said president Larry McIntosh. Schriemer was sent an order because he sold to a national chain, he said.
But Peak of the Market is planning to come up with new regulations next year to for malize the way small producers sell to farmers’ markets, whose popularity is increasing as more consumers seek out local produce and desire knowledge about the origins of their food
Sorting spuds at Suderman Bros. Farms.
“Technically, they’re covered under the regulations. Historically we haven’t worried about farmers’ markets because it’s a small acreage,” McIntosh said. “I can’t speculate until I meet with my board, but we’re not going to do anything to put out the local producer. We want to do what’s best for the industry as a whole.”
Small producers and organic vegetable growers have no reason to be afraid of tak ing their product to Peak of the Market, added Debora Durnin-Richards, the acting director of boards, commissions and legislation for Manitoba’s Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives.
Peak of the Market ensures competition be tween farmers remains fair and assures consumers their food is safe, she added.
But small retailers and farmers’ markets claim the marketing board is offside with a growing number of locavores in Manitoba.
“People in this province have no idea Peak of the Market controls the potato market. I’m ticked off. Everyone in the industry knows they’re trying to capture market share,” said Erin Crampton, who owns Waverley Street grocery Crampton’s Market, which buys produce directly from 50 growers. “I have customers who believe these ads with Larry McIntosh talking into a carrot, saying ‘local, local, local.’ It’s incongruous.”
Farmers who want to grow on a small scale and cut out the middleman have no interest in vegetable marketing boards, added the spokeswoman for Winnipeg’s largest farmers’ market….”
Like much else in agriculture, potato farming is big business for some folks. Guardian photo
Tractor harvesting potatoes photo from the Guardian
Peak of the Market family fun day photo from Access Winnipeg.
Other family fun day photos from Peak of the Market website.
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