The American Lamb Weston, the second largest French fries producer in the world, is working on a mega expansion of their factory in American Falls, Idaho. When all new facilities are in use next summer, it should be the largest French fries factory in the world. This also means that the French fries company has to scale up its potato cultivation considerably.
Lamb Weston is spending $415 million (€384 million) to grow its American Falls factory in capacity by 40%. The production capacity will therefore increase by 450 tons per day, on top of what the factory can already produce daily. The capacity therefore increases to almost 159.000 tonnes annually. It's not just about fries, but also about typical American potato snacks such as hash browns and tater puffs or tots: rösti or potato croquettes in good Dutch.
Two in one
This actually concerns two factories in one location, writes the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation. In the past, the location, which opened in 1961, only produced French fries. The 'waste' was then sold to another company that processed them into flakes. After the expansion, Lamb Weston can process all the potatoes itself and thus extract more value from the raw material.
To run the new lines at full capacity, 4.850 hectares more Russet chip potatoes are needed. Calculated with an average yield of 55,2 tons for Idaho, this means almost 270.000 tons more potatoes that Lamb Weston is asking for. Almost all of them are grown in the region. This hunger for potatoes is clearly visible in the acreage figure for the state and even for the entire US. This year the area has increased by 5,3%, but in Idaho even by 12%. In total, there are 14.000 more hectares of potatoes in the state this year.
Three phases
The construction of this new factory was already announced in 2021, but the corona pandemic threw a spanner in the works. Actually, all lines should have been operational by the end of this year, but that will now be July next year at the latest. A large part of the required potatoes are already being grown this year by contract growers. Phase one has been completed, but the largest expansion is still to come. Phase three includes a new cold store that can store 22.500 tons of frozen chips.
A large storage capacity as a buffer is necessary when you look at the map. The major export ports of Seattle and Tacoma are almost 1.200 kilometers away and Los Angeles even 1.400 kilometers away. That is a journey of more than ten hours by road. For comparison: the distance from Steenderen to Rotterdam is 140 kilometers and that from Heuvelland to Antwerp is 137 kilometers. The route that American fries have to travel, when shown on the map of Europe, is comparable to the distance between Amsterdam and Bratislava.