"We're optimistic about the marketing season," said Greg Donald, general manager of the Charlottetown-based Prince Edward Island Potato Board. "It looks like the (North American) total could be the lowest production since the early '90s. Supply and demand should at least be in balance, if not demand exceeding supply."

In mid-October, Linkletter Farms Ltd., Summerside, Prince Edward Island, was sensing just that.

"We're getting calls on reds and yellows that we don't usually get," said Gary Linkletter, president and co-owner.

Movement was steady in the early going of the Prince Edward Island new crop deal, with harvest about 80 per cent completed as of October 21, Donald said.