Feb 18, 2021Potatoes in storage up slightly from last February
The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service released the following updates Feb. 17 for the remaining 2020 potato crop.
Potato stocks in Idaho on Feb. 1, 2021 totaled 75.0 million cwt. Disappearance of the Idaho crop to date was 59.8 million cwt.
Feb. 1 potato stocks in Oregon totaled 15.2 million cwt. Disappearance to date was 11.8 million cwt.
In Washington, Feb. 1 potato stocks totaled 45.5 million cwt. Disappearance to date totaled 53.1 million cwt.
Nationally, the 13 major potato states held 207 million cwt in storage on Feb. 1, 2021, up 2% from Feb. 1, 2020.
Potatoes in storage accounted for 50% of the states’ 2020 production compared with 48% a year earlier.
The indicated potato disappearance, at 207 million cwt, was down 7% from the same period last year.
Season-to-date shrink and loss, at 15.9 million cwt, was 4% higher than the same time last year.
Processors in Idaho and Malheur County, Oregon used 41.7 million cwt of potatoes for the season, up 5% from February 2020.
In Washington and other Oregon counties, 45.1 million cwt of potatoes had been used by processors for the season, down 9% from the previous year. Processors in the eight states used 107 million cwt of potatoes for the season, down 5% from February 2020.
Dehydrating usage accounted for 19.7 million cwt of the total potatoes processed.
