Dealers are complaining about slow movement of storage chip potatoes. Some are projecting a 10 day overlap between storage potatoes and new-crop supplies from North Carolina and Missouri. Canada is unlikely to import many new-crop chip potatoes this year, due to abundant supplies in storage.
Last week’s frost event damaged crops in Missouri, southern Indiana, southern Ohio, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Damage was spotty, but some crops may be set back by ten days or more. Industry sources are hoping that the setbacks will mitigate the overlap between storage and new-crop potatoes. They are expecting little pressure to speed up harvest of new-crop potatoes. Therefore, we doubt that the frost setback will have much impact on final yields.
US packers shipped 1.697 million cwt of table potatoes during the week ending April 24, 2021. That is up from 1.499 million cwt a year earlier. Michigan packers shipped 53,575 cwt of potatoes during the week ending April 24, 2021. That is down from 56,000 cwt during the same week in 2020. Last week’s Michigan shipments were 56.3% Russets, 19.3% Yellow varieties, and 24.4% Round White potatoes.
Michigan packers are selling size A Russets in 10# bags for $12.00-$12.50 per 50# bale, unchanged from last week. Wisconsin packers are selling size A Russet potatoes in 10# bags for mostly $8.00-$9.00 per 50# bale, unchanged for the week. They are selling 40-70 count Russet count cartons for mostly $13.00-$14.00 per 50# box, also unchanged for the week. The weighted average shipping point price for Idaho Russet Norkotahs is $12.90 per cwt, up from $12.72 per cwt last week.
In the Red River Valley size-A Yellow potatoes are selling for mostly $28.00 per cwt in 2000# totes, compared with $26.00-$29.00 per cwt a week ago. Florida new-crop size A Yellow potatoes are selling for mostly $18.25-$20.70 per 50# carton, down from $21.25-$22.70 a week ago.
Florida packers are selling 50# cartons of size A Round White new-crop potatoes for $22.25-$22.70 per box, down from $22.70-$25.25 per box a week ago.