The 13 major potato states held 65.7 million cwt of potatoes in storage May 1, 2011, down 27 percent from a year ago.
Potatoes in storage accounted for 19 percent of the 2010 fall storage States' production, four percentage points below May 1, 2010.
Klamath Basin stocks totaled 520 thousand cwt on May 1, 2011, down 32 percent from a year ago. Klamath Basin stocks include potatoes stored in California and Klamath County, Ore. Potato disappearance, at 286 million cwt, was 3 percent below May 1, 2010.
Season-to-date shrink and loss, at 22.1 million cwt, was down 17 percent from the same date in 2010.
Processors in the nine major states have used 144 million cwt of potatoes this season, up 1 percent from the same period last year. Dehydrating usage accounted for 22.7 million cwt of the total processing, down 15 percent from last year.