US Spud Stocks on Hand Went Up 3% on April 1

California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin held 6.55m metric tons of spuds in storage on April 1, up 3% from April a year ago.

Potatoes in storage accounted for 31% of the cultivar states' 2021 production, up slightly from 30% a year earlier, the USDA Potato Stocks report mentioned on April 14. The indicated potato disappearance, at 14.27m metric tons, was down 5% from the same period last year.

The 985,565 metric tons of potato’s season-to-date shrink and loss accounted for was 1% higher than the same time last year, the USDA experts added.

The same aggregated USDA data shows that the spud processors in eight US states used 7.87m metric tons of potatoes for the season, up 6% from April 2021.

According to USDA’s experts, the potato stocks survey is a probability survey that includes a sample of approximately 830 growers, processors, and storage facilities that are contacted to obtain the quantity of potatoes stored as of the first of the month, as well as monthly shrinkage and loss information.

The monthly processing data is collected from a census of all known potato processing facilities in Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin.