Yellow potatoes continue to gain market share, and the gain is mostly at the expense of russets and whites, according to Ted Kreis, marketing and communications director with the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association (NPPGA).
Red River Valley red potato production has been up and down in recent years, but one trend is clear: The valley is growing more yellows. In 2010, the valley produced just over 200,000 hundredweight of yellow potatoes. Just five years later in 2015, the valley produced 607,000 hundredweight, a three-fold increase. In 2016 the number increased even more despite some yellow losses in the northern valley. Yellow potatoes made up just 6 percent of the Red River Valley fresh crop in 2010; the past two years they have averaged 14.5 percent.
Nationwide, white potatoes for the fresh market have been the big losers. Since the 2008 crop year, white potato shipments have decreased 43.3 percent, according to numbers compiled by the North American Potato Market News.
So far this season, russet shipments mimic closely market year 2008, although they are down 7.7 percent from 2009, when they hit a 10-year peak.
U.S. red shipments had increased about 14 percent between 2009 and 2015 crop years but have regressed this year because of short supplies in the Red River Valley, the nation’s most prolific red potato-producing region.
Source: Potato Business