Storage potatoes from the 2021 crop have mostly been cleaned up. SW Michigan chip potatoes should be ready to harvest during the week of July 24. Harvest is continuing in North Carolina, Florida, Virginia, Georgia. Harvest began in Ohio this week.
Chip potato supplies are plentiful. Through the week of July 9, new-crop chip potato movement exceeded the year-earlier pace by 8.8%. Florida’s shipments are running 1.0% behind 2021 movement, while North Carolina has shipped 53.3% more potatoes. Shipments from the West Coast region are running 10.1% ahead of the last year’s pace. Shipments from Virginia nearly match the year-earlier movement. Georgia’s shipments are down 34.2%. Chip potato movement from the Southwest region is up 8.9%, while shipments from the Mid Central region are down 5.0%.
Canada reports that it still had 12.32 million cwt of potatoes from the 2021 crop left in storage on July 1. That is up from 6.09 million cwt a year earlier. This is the third time Canada has reported July 1 stocks. Most of the remaining supplies are intended for frozen processing. However, Ontario reported that it had 450,000 cwt of chip potatoes left in storage on July 1. That is up from 271,000 cwt a year ago. At the June usage rate those potatoes would be gone by July 19.
US packers shipped 1.077 million cwt of table potatoes during the week ending July 9, 2022. That is down from 1.479 million cwt a year earlier. Michigan packers shipped 22,600 cwt of potatoes during the week ending July 9, 2022. That is up from 12,000 cwt during the same week in 2021. Last week’s Michigan shipments were all Russet potatoes.
Wisconsin packers are selling size A Russet potatoes in 10# bags for mostly $16.00 per 50# bale, up from $13.00-$15.00 per 50# bale last week. They are selling Russet 40-70 count cartons for mostly $25.00-$26.00 per 50# box, up from $24.00-$25.00 per 50# box a week ago. The weighted average shipping point price for Idaho Russet Burbanks is $31.68 per cwt, up from $28.58 per cwt last week.
North Carolina packers are selling 2000# tote bags of Size A Round White potatoes for $34.00-$43.00 per cwt, down from $38.00-$43.00 per cwt last week. Virginia packers are selling 50# bags of Size A Round White potatoes for $19 per bag, down from $20.00 per bag a week ago. They are selling 50# Round White Chefs for $22.00 per bag, unchanged from last week.