Potato Stocks Decline

WASHINGTON - Apr 13/07 - SNS -- Potato on hand in the U.S's 13 major potato States totalled 114 million cwt (100 pound units) as of April 1, down 2% from last year and 12% below last year, reports the USDA.

Ohio and Pennsylvania were dropped from the potato stocks program starting with the 2005 storage season. Potatoes in storage account for 30% of the 2006 fall storage States' production, down 1 percentage point from last year. Klamath Basin stocks were added to the potato stocks program starting with December 2006 and total 1.40 million cwt on April 1, 2007. Klamath Basin includes California and Klamath County, Oregon potato stocks.

Disappearance of 269 million cwt from the start of harvest to April 1, is up 4% from last year. Shrink and loss, at 21.9 million cwt, is up 8% from the previous year.

Processors have used 144 million cwt of 2006 crop potatoes so far this season, up 9% from a year ago and 6% above 2 years ago. Idaho and Malheur County, Oregon total processing increased 9% from a year ago, Maine's total processing was 10% above the same date in 2006, and Washington and the rest of Oregon total processing was up 2% from last season. Dehydrating usage accounts for 30.2 million cwt of the total processing, up 13% from last year and 1% above the same date in 2005.

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