Potato stocks up 3% on April 1, but prices improved compared with last year
U.S. potato stocks on hand on April 1 were up 3% from year-ago levels, according to a new USDA report.
The USDA Potato Stocks report said April 14 that 13 potato states (California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, north Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin) held 129 million cwt of potatoes in storage on April 1, up 3% from April a year ago.
Potatoes in storage accounted for 31% of the potato states' 2021 production, up slightly from 30% a year earlier. The indicated potato disappearance, at 281 million cwt, was down 5% from the same period last year.
Season-to-date shrink and loss, at 19.4 million cwt, was 1% higher than the same time last year, the report said.
Processors in the 8 states used 155 million cwt of potatoes for the season, up 6% from April 2021.
The agency said the potato stocks survey is a probability survey that includes a sample of approximately 830 growers, processors and storage facilities that are contacted to obtain the quantity of potatoes stored as of the first of the month, as well as monthly shrinkage and loss information.
The USDA said monthly processing data is collected from a census of all known potato processing facilities in Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin.
Market bump
Potato fob prices were higher in mid-April compared with a year ago.
The average fob fresh market per-carton price for U.S. conventional potatoes on April 16 was $16.67, up from $13.93 per carton a year about but lower than the $17.81 per carton average in mid-April 2020, according to USDA numbers.
For the week of April 3-9, the USDA reported total truckload volume of U.S. potatoes was 2,629 (50,000 pound) truckloads, about 10% down from 2,915 truckloads the same week last year. Through April 9, the UDSA reported season-to-date U.S. potato truck shipments totaled 100,489 truckloads, down 9% from 110,504 loads the same time a year ago.
