PRESQUE ISLE — The nation’s potato farmers, who held the line on increased acreage after a profitable 1988-89 shipping season, apparently will be unable to resist the lure of an even better 1989-90 marketing year and will increase acreage by an estimated 5 to 6 percent, pricing officials in Maine predicted Tuesday.

The forecast is for an increase of 60,000 acres in the so-called fall states where most of the country’s potato crop is planted in spring for fall harvest.

Maine’s potato growers were expected to increase their acreage by a more modest amount, planting an estimated 82,000 to 84,000 acres on the heels of last year’s 81,000-acre crop.

“History indicates when you have an increase in acreage, you have a decrease in prices,” said Wayne Smith of the Maine Potato Price Stabilization Office in Caribou.

Jane Fowler, director of communications for the Maine Potato Board, had a different point of view. “Even with the (acreage) increase the marketing efforts of all the states are such that increased acreage would be absorbed without sacrificing the good prices we’ve had in the last two years,” said Fowler. “People get nervous about increased production. But domestic and Pacific rim requirements demand more acreage.

“The Maine Potato Board’s long-range plan calls for increased acreage in Maine,” she said. “We are not unhappy to see that happen. The difference between a dying industry and a growing industry is expansion.”

“An increase in acreage was to be expected,” said Smith. “We go through these cycles. It’s just a wonder there was no hike in acreage by the fall states last year.”

The fall states growers held the line on planting in 1989 after the previous summer’s Midwest drought reduced supplies and sent prices into profit columns. There was no acreage increase.

The just concluding marketing season proved to be even better than 1988-89, turning out to be one of the best price years ever for fall growers right across the country. A second summer’s drought in the Midwest and record levels of processing usage brought acute potato shortages and record money for producers. The result was that growers with money in their jeans apparently surrendered to the urge to plant more acres this spring.

Prices in Maine during 1989-90 peaked at about $18 a barrel, averaging approximately $15-$16, for produce costing an estimated $10-$11 per barrel to grow.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture report scheduled for release Wednesday was expected to show a decline of 10 percent in fall stocks in storage from a year earlier, as of May 1. “Most Maine growers cleaned up two weeks early this year,” said Smith. “Maine has only a few potatoes left.”

“The Northwest is about done planting,” said Smith. “The Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota is 50 percent done. Maine is approximately 50 percent planted in a “timely” situation. Central Wisconsin is done. Michigan is half done.”