The 13 major potato states held 205 million cwt of potatoes in storage January 1, down 13 percent from a year ago. Potatoes in storage accounted for 58 percent of the 2010 fall storage states' production, three percentage points below January 1, 2010.
Klamath Basin stocks totaled 3.00 million cwt on January 1, 2011, down 14 percent from a year ago. Klamath Basin stocks include potatoes stored in California and Klamath County, Ore. Potato disappearance, at 147 million cwt, was 2 percent below January 1, 2010. Season-to-date shrink and loss, at 14.7 million cwt, was down 11 percent from the same date in 2010.
Processors in the 9 major states have used 77.2 million cwt of potatoes this season, up 2 percent from the same period last year. Dehydrating usage accounted for 10.6 million cwt of the total processing, down 24 percent from last year.