Sep 30, 2021Pacific Northwest sees lower potato sales for 2020 crop
Year-over- year total revenue and average price for potatoes sold both fell in Idaho, Oregon and Washington in 2020.
The combined value of all potatoes sold in 2020 for Idaho, Oregon and Washington was $1.82 billion, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistical Service.
The final value of Idaho’s 2020 potato crop sold was $912 million, down 5% from 2019. The marketing year average price for potatoes in Idaho was $7.28 per cwt, down $0.70 from last year.
In Oregon, the value of potatoes sold in 2020, at $199 million, decreased 7% from last year. The potato price was $8.00 per cwt, down $1.24 from last year.
In Washington, the value of potatoes sold in 2020, at $705 million, decreased 19% from 2019. The marketing year average price for fall potatoes was $7.56 per cwt, down $1.34 from the previous year.
In Idaho, potato production for 2020 totaled 135 million cwt, up 3% from 2019. In Oregon, production was 27.0 million cwt., up 7% from 2019. Production in Washington was 99.7 million cwt., down 5% from 2019.
The combined production for the three states was 62% of U.S. potato production in 2020. Processors in Idaho and Malheur County Oregon used a total of 90,755 thousand cwt in 2020, up 4% from 2019. Washington and Oregon, excluding Malheur County, processors used 89,406 thousand cwt during 2020, down 6% from the previous year.
Utilization
Total U.S. table stock sales were up to 101.2 million cwt in 2020 from 97.9 million cwt the previous year. Processing sales decreased from 424.4 million cwt in 2019 to 420.0 million cwt in 2020.
This trend is likely to due the pandemic, which led to more consumers eating at home and fewer trips to restaurants and other foodservice locations. Potatoes to processing had been steadily growing in the years leading up to 2020.
