Ak-Chin potato washing plant saves costs

A new potato cleaning facility built prior to this year’s spud harvest on Ak-Chin Indian Community lands is helping the farming enterprise save a buck.

One of the many crops grown on Ak-Chin farming lands, potatoes are harvested from May to July. The Ak-Chin farming enterprise is unique in Arizona because it grows chipping potatoes, or spuds used for producing potato chips. 

As part of an agreement with potato supplier R and G Potato Company, Ak-Chin Farms completed construction on a spud cleaning plant just before the harvest began in mid-May. The farming enterprise previously had to ship potatoes from its fields to a facility farther southeast near Casa Grande. 

Trucks were making a 30- to 35-mile round trip to the old facility, said Farms Manager Steve Coester. A chance to save on transportation costs and the need to update equipment spurred the agreement to build the new facility. 

Potatoes are brought from the fields to the plant where mud and dirt is washed off the vegetables. 

After the potatoes are washed at the facility, R and G Potato Company ships the vegetables to Frito Lay, Poore Brothers, Barrel O’ Fun and other smaller companies around the country. The washing plant operates seven days a week, and Coester said in the next two weeks, potatoes will be loaded on about 30 semi-trucks each day. 

Ak-Chin Farms has an agreement with R and G this year to deliver 35 million pounds of potatoes, he said. 

The cleaning facility is essentially a huge open canopy built on slabs of concrete. Construction was a quick process – beginning in March and finishing right before the season began in May. 

“We built all the infrastructure and R and G potatoes put in the equipment,” Coester said.