PRESQUE ISLE – When Matthew Porter, a potato farmer from Washburn, was named last year’s Young Farmer of the Year by the Maine Potato Board, he knew that he had garnered the respect of his peers and a chance to take part in the Potato Industry Leadership Institute.

As he neared the end of his participation in the more-than-weeklong workshop, held in both North Dakota and Washington, D.C., in February, his classmates decided he was so revered that he should come back next year.

The goal of the institute is to identify, develop and cultivate new leaders within the potato industry.

Participants are selected through state organization nominations and a committee facilitated by the National Potato Council and the U.S. Potato Board.

The 20 potato growers who attended the PILI this year toured a potato research facility, a potato processing plant and numerous other sites. The contingent gained insight about leadership development, media training and lobbying skills.

Porter and his wife, Billie, grow about 150 acres of potatoes. In 2004, Porter was named to McCain Foods’ Top 10 Growers list.

He told Maine Potato Board members Friday about his trip to the PILI, but was reticent about announcing the additional news.

Porter told panelists that he enjoyed his experience and acquired an immense amount of information during the workshops.

After recounting his time out of state and thanking the board for the accolade, he made an attempt to sit down and blend in with the rest of the audience at the meeting.

That attempt was thwarted by a large contingent of board members, and MPB Executive Director Don Flannery gently prodded him to tell the rest of the story.

At the conclusion of the PILI event, Porter was elected by the other participants to serve as the grower leader of the 2007 institute.

That means another trip out of state and another institute experience for Porter.

While the Washburn resident brushed off the board’s praise, Flannery pegged Porter’s accomplishment as a stroke of good luck.

“I think it speaks well for Matt and for how he represented our state,” he noted Friday.