Jan 19, 2010Potato Stocks Up 10 Percent From January 2009
The 13 major potato states held 235 million cwt. of potatoes in storage Jan. 1, up 10 percent from a year ago and 1 percent above Jan. 1, 2008, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Potatoes in storage accounted for 61 percent of the 2009 fall storage states’ production, unchanged from 2009. Klamath Basin stocks totaled 3.6 million cwt. on Jan. 1, up 9 percent from a year ago.
Klamath Basin stocks include potatoes stored in California and Klamath County, Ore.
Potato disappearance, at 149 million cwt., was 5 percent below January 1, 2009 and down 10 percent from 2008. Season-to-date shrink and loss, at 16.5 million cwt., was up 11 percent from the same date in 2009 and 1 percent above 2008.
Processors in the nine major states have used 75.7 million cwt. of potatoes this season, down 10 percent from the same period last year and down 16 percent from 2 years ago. Dehydrating usage
accounted for 14.1 million cwt of the total processing, down 3 percent from last year and 16 percent below the same period in 2008.
