The Michigan harvest has been progressing slowly due to excessive rainfall. Growers are waiting for fields to dry out. Conditions have improved, though more rain is expected later this week. Chip business is steady, with plants running almost exclusively on contract potatoes. Several chip manufacturers are behind on their field-delivery contracts.
US packers shipped 1.574 million cwt of table potatoes during the week ending October 9, 2021. That is down from 1.847 million cwt a year earlier. Michigan packers shipped 85,700 cwt of potatoes during the week ending October 9, 2021. That is up from 41,100 cwt during the same week in 2020. Last week’s Michigan shipments were 80.3% Russets, 17.4% Yellow potatoes, 1.5% Round White potatoes, and 0.8% Red potatoes.
Wisconsin packers are selling size A Russet potatoes in 10# bags for mostly $8.00-$8.50 per 50# bale, unchanged from last week. They are selling Russet 40-70 count cartons for mostly $18.00 per 50# box, down from $18.00-$19.00 per 50# box a week ago. The weighted average shipping point price for Idaho Russet Norkotahs is $19.27 per cwt, up from $19.12 per cwt last week.
Wisconsin packers are selling 10/5# bags of size A Yellow potatoes for mostly $13.00-$16.00 per 50# bale, unchanged from a week ago. They are selling 50# cartons of size A Yellow potatoes for mostly $14.00-$15.50, also unchanged.