RUPERT, Idaho — "They're Idaho potatoes, grown by native Idaho farmers, and then they're baked, frozen, pop them in the microwave and you're good to go," said Duane Grant. "It doesn't get any better than that."
- Mart Group held a ribbon cutting for their new $65 million dollar, 100,000 square foot facility in Rupert on Wed., Oct. 2.
- The facility will bake and then freeze Idaho potatoes whole, allowing them to have farm-fresh potato flavor with an extended shelf life, for national and international markets.
- Currently, the biggest consumer of the product is Japan, who prohibits importation of raw potatoes. The Mart Group envisions a larger market for the product in the U.S., and other nations,
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)
"Potatoes have an attitude of 'love me now or lose me forever,'" said Duane Grant, chairman of the board for Mart Group.
Grant rhapsodizes about potatoes the way other people might talk about Marylin Monroe.
Potatoes are the fourth most commonly eaten food in the world, following wheat, rice, and corn.
"But you can't harvest potatoes and throw them in storage and eat them two years later, like you can with wheat," Grant said.
This new Rupert frozen food facility represents an innovation to preserving farm-fresh potatoes in a stable storage and ready-to-eat way.
"This is something unique," said Mart CEO Julian Critchfield. "In the North American market itself, no other provider actually produces this type of product."
At the Mart Group's new 100-000 square foot facility's ribbon cutting ceremony potato enthusiasts learned more about how the taters will be baked, then flash-frozen, packaged, and shipped to retail, all from this facility
The products have been highly sought after in Japan for decades, where a prohibition on importing raw potatoes necessitates different methods.
As one of the main consumers of frozen potatoes, Japan was represented at the ribbon cutting by the consul general, Yuzo Yoshioka, alongside Governor Brad Little and Department of Agriculture director Chanel Tewalt.
"Southern Idaho, and Rupert, and Burley, and these communities are leading the way nationally, and innovating food," said Idaho Senate Majority Leader Kelly Anthon. "They're taking food that we've always eaten, and letting us eat it in a new way."
Anthon is also Rupert's City administrator. He said the added jobs and economic impact of the plant will be big for Rupert, and for the region as well.
"It's a big deal for all of Southern Idaho. What the opening of this plant demonstrates, again, is the power of agriculture in the Idaho economy. Not only do we produce the very best potato, but now we have stepped into innovation," Rupert said.
"They're Idaho potatoes, grown by native Idaho farmers, and then they're baked, frozen, pop them in the microwave and you're good to go," said Grant. "It doesn't get any better than that."
