A market information database providing real-time data on New Brunswick’s potato acreage, potato varieties planted, storage estimates, prices and market destinations is $123,000 closer to going live.
The Potato Market Data Information Gathering and Analyses system, expected to be completed by March 2011, is meant to give farmers a “stronger bargaining position with buyers.”
Potatoes New Brunswick, a marketing organization for 225 potato farmers in the province, is spearheading the database project.
“Our farmers need more accurate and timelier information to better market their crop,” said Potatoes New Brunswick chairman Joe Brennan, who farms at Johnville, about 55 km north of Woodstock.
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“This project will help give farmers the information they need to make better sales decisions and get better prices for their crops,” he said in a federal government release Thursday.
The federal government’s $123,000 contribution to the project, pledged Thursday in Grand Falls by New Brunswick MP Mike Allen, will flow through the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP).
CAAP, launched last year, is a five-year, $163 million program succeeding the previous Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food (ACAAF) program, and is delivered within the province by the New Brunswick Agricultural Council.
