United States Potato Stocks Down 15 Percent From March 2010

The 13 major potato States in the US held 143 million cwt of potatoes in storage March 1, 2011, down 15 percent from a year ago.

Potatoes in storage accounted for 41 percent of the 2010 fall storage States' production, three percentage points below March 1, 2010. Klamath Basin stocks totaled 1.80 million cwt on March 1, 2011, down 18 percent from a year ago.

Klamath Basin stocks include potatoes stored in California and Klamath County, Oregon.



Potato disappearance, at 208 million cwt, was 3 percent below March 1, 2010. Season-to-date shrink and loss, at 18.6 million cwt, was down 12 percent from the same date in 2010.

Processors in the 9 major States have used 110 million cwt of potatoes this season, up 2 percent from the same period last year.

Dehydrating usage accounted for 16.5 million cwt of the total processing, down 17 percent from last year.