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w w w. m a i n e b i z . b i z 15 F e b r ua r y 9 , 2 0 1 5 dozen other potato farmers in 1995. But a larger goal is to build a future for Aroostook County's young people, with high wages and diverse job opportunities that will encourage them to stay rather than leave the state for better opportunities elsewhere. "If we want Maine to succeed, we have to do it our- selves. It's not going to come from outside the state," he says. "So we should express to these young people, 'It can be fun.' ere are all kinds of success stories in Maine like ours, and those that are waiting to happen." Farmer to entrepreneur Since 2010, sales at Naturally Potatoes have grown by 15% annually. To accommodate the growth, the company recently doubled its storage-and-produc- tion capacity at a cost of $7.5 million, including a $1 million upgrade to the packaging line. Sales last year totaled $35 million, 25% higher than 2013 and more than double sales in 2010. It has 135 workers, with 30 added since August. e company expects to purchase 20% more pota- toes in 2015, bringing its total to 50 million pounds. Its supply comes entirely from farms within a 30-mile radius of the Mars Hill plant. For potato growers like Brent Grass, Naturally Potatoes' need for additional potatoes in 2014 eased the impact of McCain Foods USA's decision last spring to buy 20% fewer potatoes for its French fry processing plant in Easton. "It allowed us to maintain our acreage," Grass says. He sells 60% of his crop to Frito-Lay for chips, 20% to McCain Foods USA for fries and 20% to Naturally Potatoes for mashed or diced potatoes. Potato farmers in Aroostook County produced 90% of the state's 1.54 billion pounds of potatoes harvested in 2013. For McCrum, a fourth-generation potato farmer, the company's success validates the overriding purpose he and its other co-founders had when they incor- porated Naturally Potatoes in 1995 and opened the Mars Hill processing plant two years later: to keep jobs in e County. "e thought that discourages me the most, even now, is the perception that if you live in northern Maine you can't make a living," he says. In his lifetime, McCrum has seen Maine topple from its throne as the top potato-growing state in the coun- try in the early 1950s, when more than 200,000 acres in Aroostook were devoted to growing potatoes. Maine is now ninth in the nation, with roughly 55,000 harvested acres. Idaho leads the nation with 316,000 acres being harvested, followed by Washington, with 160,000 acres. "We were continuing to lose potato farmers here because we were selling a commodity," McCrum says. Growers in western states have gradually taken over much of the potato market with larger farms and by using irrigation, which can create more uniformly sized potatoes — unlike those in Maine, which grow in relation to the amount of rainfall in a season. McCrum admits it took him a long time to realize that "adding value" — by transforming whole potatoes into refrigerated mashed potatoes with a shelf life of 65 days or cut potatoes with a 50-day shelf life — offered a brighter future than continuing to sell potatoes as a commodity in five- and 10-pound bags. "It's easy to recognize what's wrong, but it's harder to recognize what to do about it," he says. VALUATIONS CUSTOM-FITTED Gain Insight with Valuation and Forensic Experts The issues are complicated. You need an expert who can bring clarity. Leveraging Northern New England's largest accounting and consulting fi rm. Dependable valuations. Defendable results. SHAREHOLDER DISPUTES ECONOMIC DAMAGES LOST PROFITS BUSINESS APPRAISAL BERRYDUNN.COM C o n t I n u e d o n f o l l ow I n g pa g e »

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