Report: Potato sales steady through 2025
U.S. retail sales of potatoes held steady throughout calendar year 2025, according to a report released by national promotion board Potatoes USA March 3.
Total retail dollar sales reached $19.9 billion, with 15.3 billion pounds of potatoes (fresh weight equivalent) sold, according to data compiled by market research company Circana. Total volume dipped 0.5% from 2024, while dollar sales dropped 0.7%, driven primarily by a 1% decrease in the average consumer price per pound.
Volume sales grew for fresh potatoes (+1%) and deli-prepared sides (+0.9%) Chips, the largest category by fresh weight equivalent volume, declined 1.5% in both dollar and volume sales.
Frozen potato volume remained steady (-0.1%), while refrigerated potato dollar sales increased 0.4%. Instant and refrigerated potatoes each declined 2.6% in volume, Deli-prepared potato sides, a small segment at 0.9% of total volume, posted modest growth in both volume (0.9%) and dollar sales (2.8%).
Fresh potato volume sales increased 1% in 2025, with specialty potatoes leading the way. Yellow, medley, petite, and purple potatoes each grew more than 6% in volume, while russet volume sales declined 0.5%. Reds decreased 6.6% and whites fell 9.4%.
Dollar sales saw strong gains from medley (8.8%), purple (8.1%) and yellow (6.6%). White potatoes’ dollar sales declined 10%, and red potatoes decreased 9.2%. Overall, fresh potato dollar sales declined 0.3%, while the average consumer price per pound for fresh potatoes fell 1.4% to $0.89.
Volume sales increased for 1-2 pound bags (6.3%), 2-4 pound bags (8.4%), and 8-pound bags (+5.8%). Fresh potatoes sold in bags, single-wrapped and tray formats all posted volume gains. Volume sales decreased for 5-pound packs (-0.8%), 10-pound packs (-1.%), and packs greater than 10 pounds (-40.7%).
Retail prices across the total potato category averaged $2.31 per pound in 2025, a decrease of 1.% from the prior year. Prices per pound fell for frozen (-1.9%), fresh (-1.4%), instant (-0.2%), and chips (-0.01%), while rising for refrigerated (+3.1%) and deli-prepared sides (+1.9%).