May 6, 2025Decrease in potato acreage forecast for Idaho, nation
The Idaho Farm Bureau Federation and an industry publication are projecting potato acres in the nation’s leading potato-producing state to decrease by 15,000 this year as compared to last year.
The projections, made in the April 10 edition of the North American Potato Market News, forecast a 5% drop, from 315,000 acres in 2024 to 300,000 in 2025.
Total U.S. potato acres are forecast to fall by 4%, from 930,000 to 891,000, which would mark the smallest U.S. potato acreage since 1952.
The largest acreage reductions are expected in Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Maine, according to the report.
All three of the major frozen potato processors made contract volume cuts for the 2025 crop, ranging from 5% to 15%, while hydrators have also reduced contracts by up to 30%, according to North American Potato Market News.
AgWest Farm Credit’s April 9 Market Update also predicts potato acre declines.
“Potato growers are grappling with widespread challenges as processors implement substantial cuts to contracted acres,” according to the AgWest report, which noted that reductions across the Northwest “average around 10%, with some producers facing cuts as steep as 40% or greater.”
According to AgWest, potato contract prices are down by an average of 5% compared to 2024.
“In addition to contract reductions, poor alternative crop prices could encourage growers to plant more open-market potatoes than normal,” according to the NAPMN report. “Poor alternative crop prices might encourage growers to take the risk (of planting uncontracted potatoes), hoping that processors will need extra potatoes late in the processing season, or that they will be able to sell them in the table potato market.”
If average trendline yields are achieved, U.S. farmers would produce about 410 million cwt of spuds in 2025, which would exceed the size of the 2022 crop.
Idaho growers planted 330,000 acres of potatoes in 2023 and 295,000 in 2022, according to the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation. U.S. acreage was 966,000 in 2023 and 923,000 in 2022.
