IN THE CHIPS: SOUTHEAST MISSOURI POTATO GROWERS CASH IN ON DEMAND FOR SNACK

When the bottom dropped out of the price Idaho potato farmers got for their crop last year, it didn't affect the potato growers of Southeast Missouri.

That's because most of Idaho's potatoes go for making french fries, while most of Southeast Missouri's pototoes go for potato chips. Frying potatoes and chipping potatoes are both starchy tubers that grow undergound, but marketing the different varieties that produce the each is so different that they are, as far as farmers are concerned, totally different crops, said Clay Shelby, owner of Paragon Farms, a chipping potato producer based just south of Diehlstadt.

Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo, has been contracting with growers east of Sikeston like Paragon for more than a decade specifically to supply potatoes for the industry's busiest season, the time around the Fourth of July.

David Reinbott, a state extension agent in Benton, said potato growers moved into Southeast Missouri because its sandy soil is ideal and its growing season allows harvesting when the demand for chips is greatest -- late June and early July.

Shelby added that being close to Interstate 55 helps in an industry that puts a premium on freshness. In addition, the soils allow harvesting after a rain more quickly than other places so it is not as vulnerable to interruption.

Out-of-state outfits like North Dakota-based Black Gold Farms work most of the local land planted in potatoes. They rent land in several states and bring crews and equipment with them following the harvest.

Paragon Farms is locally owned and has raised corn and soybeans longer than potatoes. Shelby said he added potatoes to the mix 10 years ago after some out-of-state organizations rented land, grew potatoes and "they looked like they were doing well."

This year Paragon has 650 acres in potatoes and 1,500 in corn and soybeans.

Paragon's employees live in the area, even if some of them only work part of the year. "I hire laborers just to grade and sort potatoes," Shelby said. "We don't have much trouble finding non-skilled short-term labor...I get applications every day."

For four or five weeks, Paragon is the prime supplier to one Frito-Lay plant in Beloit, Wis.

Although the potatoes consumers buy in a grocer's produce department may have been harvested months ago, the potatoes in potato chips a few aisles over may have been in the ground just a day or two before they hit the shelves.

"All of our products are date-stamped," said Monica Neufang, a spokeswoman for Frito-Lay in Dallas. "With potato chips, the fresher the better. Ideally, we get it in the bag within 24 hours."

Indeed, a visitor to Paragon Farms' potato shed in late June or early July will find trucks lined up, their engines running, waiting to be loaded up with potatoes headed for Beloit, with some going to Topeka, Kan., or Frankfurt, Ind., or even Michigan or Colorado.

After, say, an eight-hour drive to Beloit, the potatoes will be sliced, dipped, fried and bagged and on their way to a supermarket within hours, Shelby said.

Frito-Lay contracted with Paragon Farms and other growers for delivery at a particular time to make sure its assembly lines are constantly supplied with fresh potatoes.

"We're trying to hit a marketing window," Shelby said on July 1, as he watched his employees try to fix a sorting machine that had broken down. During harvest season, his 24 employees work sometimes from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. to fill the demand.

To ensure that potatoes are as fresh as possible, Paragon's workers usually don't start harvesting until a truck is there to haul them away, Shelby said.

When the machinery works smoothly, a potato harvester digs plants out of the ground, separates potatoes from the plants and loads potatoes into trucks. The trucks haul the potatoes to the potato shed where another machine washes and sorts the potatoes according to size. Workers pull out those that look bad to be plowed back into the ground.

Chipping potatoes must be a minimum size of 1 7/8 inches in diameter. Paragon sells those that are too small to a broker to be sold for canning.

In addition, Paragon is experimenting with growing some potatoes for potato salad, Shelby said.

But, like all farm work, weather is a big factor. A heavy rain like the one June 30 muddied Paragon's fields. The mud clogged the harvesters and the sorting machine halting production and causing the trucks to back up. Shelby said his crews worked until 11 the next day.

The future looks good for Paragon and the other local growers. Frito-Lay will soon open a plant in Jonesboro, Ark, only a 90-minute drive from Paragon's fields. Shelby said the nearby plant will increase demand for potatoes grown in the area.