Growers in Southwest Michigan plan to start digging chip potatoes later this week. Harvest is winding down in Florida and North Carolina. Reports indicate that chip potato crops in North Carolina and Missouri have been excellent for both yield and quality. There are some open chip potatoes available in North Carolina.
Harvest is underway in Virginia and Ohio. Indiana’s chip potato crop is in good condition. Harvest will likely get underway in Indiana and Illinois on Friday. Several growing areas in New England have received heavy rainfall recently. Contract negotiations for the 2024 crop have already started in some areas.
Canada growers planted 396,922 acres of potatoes this year. That is 9,819 more acres than they planted during 2022, a 2.5% increase. Increases in potato acreage for the frozen processing sector accounted for most of the growth. At 37,700 acres, Ontario growers planted 520 more acres of potatoes this year. Quebec’s potato area fell by 731 acres, to 47,197 acres.
U.S. packers shipped 1.680 million cwt of table potatoes during the week ending July 15. That is up from 1.496 million cwt shipped a year earlier. Michigan’s reported shipments totaled 30,000 cwt during the week ending July 15. That is up from 26,900 cwt during the same week in 2022. Last week’s Michigan shipments were 100% russets.
Wisconsin packers are selling size A russet potatoes in 10-pound bags for mostly $15-$16 per 50-pound bale, unchanged from a week ago. They are selling russet 40-70 count cartons for mostly $30-$34 per 50-pound box, also unchanged. The weighted average shipping point price for Idaho Russet Burbanks is $40.02 per cwt. That is down from $40.08 per cwt a week ago.
Virginia packers are selling 50-pound sacks of size A round white potatoes for $21 per sack, unchanged from last week. They are selling 50-pound round white chefs for $26 per bag, also unchanged.
– Report by North American Potato Market News