Idaho Potato Market Drops

Idaho's fresh potato prices have fallen nearly $6 per hundredweight in the past couple of weeks, and industry can find no explanation for the decline.

Idaho’s fresh potato industry has seen markets collapse over the last two or three weeks, and no one seems to know why: “There are as many theories as there are people,” said Bruce Huffaker, publisher of North American Potato Market News, quoted by Capital Press.

Huffaker’s weighted average of shipping point prices for Idaho Russet Burbanks has dropped from $17.02 per hundredweight the week ending June 13 to $11.35 last week. There’s no good excuse, he said.

It appears people are selling in a panic.

In addition, there are fewer potatoes in storage than last year.

Four or five states are shipping way more than ever before. There will be plenty of new-crop Norkotahs coming on line, but they’re not here yet, said Klaren Koompin, an American Falls contract grower who has served on many industry boards.

The fresh potato business is relatively stable with no new business and repeat customers ordering the same product, such as 50-count potatoes. There are only so many orders out there, so maybe some warehouses are oversupplied and cutting their price to take orders away from other warehouses, said Lance Poole from Potandon Produce in Idaho Falls.

Mexico’s closed markets are a contributing factor, although it should be hurting Colorado much more than Idaho, and that state’s prices haven’t fallen as much as Idaho’s, Huffaker said.

Another factor could be that Idaho’s shipments in June were up 9 percent year-over-year, and although that’s balanced by reductions in other states, Idaho could be pushing more potatoes into the market than the market wants, he said.

Source: Capital Press