CARIBOU – Low french fry inventories and a less-than-perfect fall-harvested potato crop are creating bright price prospects.

Many growers expect to make money and not lose their shirts for the third year in a row in an almost unprecededented run of good luck.

The U.S. fall crop being harvested is the second largest ever, according to Wayne Smith of the Maine Potato Price Stabilization office.

“Imporved export mkovement off Prince Edward Island, lower yields in Maine, drought in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota, poor quality in Washington and record processing demand all will have a positive impact on marketing,” said Smith.

After 1977, the states that grow the lion’s share of U.S. fall-crop potatoes experienced 10 years of mkostly money-losing seasons.

Profits were reaped on the 1988 crop that brought record prices to growers in Maine. National price records were broken by the country’s 1989 fall crop.

The nation’s fall-growing farmers planted more heavily in 1990. But when the effects of this summer’s drought and other factors were considered, farm economists expect growers to make money once mkore in the season to come.

The quality of the new U.S. fall crop looked spotty in major growing areas of Washington and the Midwest, which will diminish the supply of top grade potatoes and possibly boost prices, industry officials said.

“By contrast, Miane’s quality is excellent,” Smith said of the state’s modest, 80,000-acre crop. “Yields are down, on early varieties in particular, thanks to a long stretch of dry, hot weather at the end of July and in early August.”

Maine’s farmers began in earnest over the weekend to harvest the new crop with the help of paid schoolchildren, teachers and other seasonal workers.

Potato pipelines to the nation’s french fry plants are “at the lowest levels in six years and facing historically high demand,” said Smith. “This should keep (market) prices at or above contract prices.”

Fraser’s Potato Newsletter of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, reported earlier this month that U.S. fry holdings were 5 percent below last year’s level, “and 23 percent below the level of two years ago, as of Aug 1…. The 1990-91 season pack of french fries is expected to exceed 5.2 billion pounds. Having only a five-week supply in cold storage usually makes processors jittery, especially those who only have two or three weeks’ worth on hand.