Weekly Potato Report

From the Michigan Potato Industry Commission

May 19, 2010

Potato Market Update by Bruce Huffaker

Chip potato markets are quiet. Plants are running primarily on contracts and earlier purchases. A few open potatoes are surfacing, but opinions about market opportunities are mixed. Some dealers believe that chip companies are well covered, while other expect new supply gaps to develop during the first half of June. Yields on potatoes currently being harvested are above average, but one dealer indicates that they are not as good as the yields on the 2009 crop.

USDA puts US May 1 potato stocks at 87.0 million cwt. That exceeds year-earlier holdings by 8.9 million cwt, or 11.4%. Heavy cullage and nontraditional uses, such as livestock feeding, have reduced supplies rapidly, during the last three months. May 1 stocks equate to 22.7% of production. That is the highest May stocks/production ratio since 2001, but it is a great improvement over the situation on February 1, when the stocks/production ratio was record high, 0.8 percentage points over the previous record, set in 1979. If the USDA stocks data are accurate, 30.3% of the 2009 potato crop disappeared during the February-April period. That is the most rapid disappearance, for the period, since 1987. Usage was more concentrated during the year's prior to 1990, as very little of the crop was stored for use during the summer months, at that time.

USDA combined May 1 stocks for Michigan with those for New York. The combined stocks totaled 230,000 cwt. If those numbers are accurate, very few potatoes are left in storage. Since May 1, Market News has reported 200,200 cwt of chip and fresh potato shipments, from the two states. We suspect that May 1 inventories were somewhat higher than USDA reported, but any remaining supplies are cleaning up rapidly. We could see limited shipments of fresh potatoes to continue for a few weeks, but the chip potato shipping season appears to be over.

In the fresh market, Michigan packers shipped 23,200 cwt of potatoes during the week ending May 15. That is down from 23,800 cwt a year ago. Last week's shipments were 83.2% Russet potatoes, and 13.8% Round White varieties. The remainder were reported as Red potato shipments.

USDA has discontinued reporting Michigan potato prices for the 2009 crop. In Wisconsin, packers are selling non Size A Russets in 10# bags for mostly $4.50 per 50# bale, unchanged for the week. Wisconsin 50-70 count cartons are selling for mostly $9.00-$10.00 per 50# box, up from $8.50-$9.00 a week ago. The weighted average price for Idaho Russet Burbanks held steady for the week, at $10.23 per cwt.

Florida new-crop Size A Round White potatoes are selling for mostly $14.00-$15.00 per 50# sack, unchanged for the week.

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