Western U.S. Potato Crop Valued at USD2.02bn in 2018

The final value of Idaho’s 2018 potato crop was USD1.0bn, up 5% from 2017, a report recently published by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has revealed.

Additionally, the marketing year average price for potatoes in Idaho was USD7.25 per cwt, up USD0.02 from last year. In Oregon, the 2018 potato crop was valued at USD202m, up 2% from last year. The potato price was USD7.47 per cwt, down USD0.39 from last year. Washington’s 2018 potato crop was valued at USD788m, up 15% from 2017. The marketing year average price for fall potatoes was USD7.82 per cwt, up USD0.90 from the previous year. In total, the total value of the potato crop for these states was valued at USD2.02bn for 2018.

In Idaho, potato production for 2018 totaled 142m cwt. In Oregon, production was 27m cwt. Production in Washington was 101m cwt. The combined production for the 3 states was 60% of all U.S. potato production in 2018.

Processors in Idaho and Malheur Country Oregon used a total of 95,974 thousand cwt in 2018, up 10% from 2017. In Washington and Oregon, excluding Malheur Country, processors used 97,176 thousand cwt during 2018, up 7% from last year.