mn-press-releases
                            MINNESOTA AG NEWS

USDA, NASS                                 MN Dept of Agriculture
MINNESOTA FIELD OFFICE                     PO Box 7068, St. Paul, MN 55107
Douglas Hartwig, Director                  Phone: (651) 296-2230
Homepage: http://www.nass.usda.gov/mn/     E-mail: nass-mn@nass.usda.gov
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                               POTATO STOCKS

                          Released: March 19, 2008
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             MINNESOTA POTATO STOCKS 2 PERCENT ABOVE 2007 LEVEL

March 1 Stocks:  Minnesota’s fall potatoes in storage totaled 8.5 million
hundredweight, two percent above the March 1, 2007 level, according to
USDA, NASS, Minnesota Field Office.  Stocks in Area 1 totaled 1.4 million
hundredweight, down 33 percent from 2007 and stocks in Area 2 totaled 7.1
million hundredweight, up 15 percent from 2007.


              MINNESOTA FALL POTATO STOCKS BY REGION
                    March 1, 2007             March 1, 2008
                 Stocks       Percent       Stocks       Percent     
Type           2006 Crop  of Total Stocks  2007 Crop  of Total Stocks
               1,000 Cwt                  1,000 Cwt
MN Area 1         2,100          25        1,400           16
MN Area 2         6,200          75        7,100           84
State Total       8,300         100        8,500          100
1/ Minnesota Area 1 includes the following counties:  Kittson,
   Roseau, Lake of the Woods,Marshall, Beltrami, Pennington, Polk, Red 
   Lake, Mahnomen, Norman, Clearwater, Clay,Becker and Wilkin counties.  
   Minnesota Area 2 includes all remaining counties in the State.



        Fall Potatoes:  Production and Stocks on March 1, 2007-20081
                    Crop of 2006                    Crop of 2007
                       Stocks                          Stocks
                        Mar. 1,     % of                 Mar. 1,    % of
          Production    2007     Production  Production   2008   Production
 State                                                  
           1,000 Cwt   1,000 Cwt   Percent  1,000 Cwt  1,000 Cwt    Percent
CA              3,870      1,200     31         4,223      1,100         26
CO             22,686     11,300     50        20,981      9,500         45
ID            128,915     59,500     46       131,650     63,000         48
ME             17,980      9,800     55        16,530      8,000         48
MI             14,190      3,300     23        14,700      4,600         31
MN             20,400      8,300     41        20,680      8,500         41
MT              3,518      3,100     88         3,696      3,300         89
NE              8,730      3,400     39         8,051      3,000         37
NY              5,700      1,000     18         5,216        700         13
ND             25,480      9,900     39        23,660      8,000         34
OR             18,533      9,700     52        20,238     11,600         57
WA             89,900     28,500     32       102,300     40,000         39
WI             29,370     10,700     36        28,160     10,500         37
13 States     389,272    159,700     41       400,085    171,800         43

Klamath
Basin2                   2,200                            2,050


1  Stocks include processor holdings and most of the seed to plant
   following year’s crop. Seed usage for all seasons in 2007 totaled
   26.4 million cwt.

2  Includes potato stocks in CA and Klamath Co. OR.