The 13 major potato states held 116 million cwt of potatoes in storage April 1, 2012, up 4 percent from a year ago.
Potatoes in storage accounted for 30 percent of the 2011 fall storage states' production, one percentage point below April 1, 2011. Potato disappearance, at 264 million cwt, was 7 percent above April 1, 2011. Season-to-date shrink and loss, at 22.8 million cwt, was up 12 percent from the same date in 2011.
Processors in the nine major states have used 142 million cwt of potatoes this season, up 11 percent from the same period last year. Dehydrating usage accounted for 28.1 million cwt of the total processing, up 45 percent from last year.
Visit http://usda01.library.cornell.edu/usda/current/PotaStoc/PotaStoc-04-17-2012.pdf.