Idaho Potato Processors have a slow start this season

Processors in Idaho and Malheur County, Oregon have used 7.56 million cwt of 2010 crop raw potatoes to October 1, down 23 percent from last year.

Idaho potatoes accounted for 4.49 million cwt of the total processed. The remaining 3.07 million cwt were produced in other states.

Processors in Washington and Other Oregon Counties have used 14.2 million cwt of 2010 crop raw potatoes to October 1, up 4 percent from last year.

Processing in other areas will first be published on December 15, 2010.

French fries/frozen potatoes in cold store

The cold storage figures show there are now less french fries in storage in the US than last year.

The preliminary numbers for September 1, 2010 indicate there were 849,657,000 pound frozen french fries in storage compared to 932,227,000 on September 1, 2009.

The amount of "other"frozen potato products in storage on this date was up, going from 198,022,000 pounds last year to 212,783,000 pounds this year.