US potato stocks down 4%, processing numbers continue increase

Potato stocks in the U.S. are down about 4% from this time last year, reported the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service Northwest Regional Field Office.

As of Dec. 1, there were 267 million hundredweight (cwt) in storage in the 13 major potato-producing states where production is tracked by the USDA-NASS. They include California, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin.

• Idaho producers saw a disappearance of 39 million cwt, leaving them with 95 million cwt in storage.
• Washington saw a disappearance of 43 million cwt, leaving producers there with a stock of 58.5 million cwt.
• Oregon producers have 17.9 million in cwt in stock after a disappearance of 4.78 million cwt.
• Overall, U.S. potato disappearance, at 155 million cwt, is down 2% from last year.

Processing report

Potatoes used for processing continues its upward trend. As of Dec. 1, 76.28 million cwt have gone to processing, up from 73.84 million cwt in 2018, an increase of 3%.

Potatoes to processing saw a 6.6% increase from 2017 to 2018.