NEW YORK POTATO STOCKS DECREASE

Potato stocks, held for all purposes on March 1, 2009 by New York growers,
dealers, and processors, totaled 800,000 hundredweight (cwt.), down 33
percent from last year according to Steve Ropel, Director of USDA’s
National Agricultural Statistics Service, New York Field Office.   Storage
accounted for 14 percent of the 2008 potato production, down from 23
percent a year ago.

The 13 major potato States held 151 million cwt of potatoes in storage
March 1, 2009, down 8 percent from a year ago and 5 percent below March 1,
2007. Potatoes in storage accounted for 41 percent of the 2008 fall storage
States' production, slightly below March 1, 2008. Klamath Basin stocks
totaled 2.00 million cwt on March 1, 2009, down 2 percent from a year ago.
Klamath Basin stocks include potatoes stored in California and Klamath
County, Oregon.



Potato disappearance, at 217 million cwt, was 8 percent below March 1, 2008
and down 6 percent from 2007. Season-to-date shrink and loss, at 18.7
million cwt, was down 7 percent from the same date in 2008 and 8 percent
below 2007.



Processors in the 9 major States have used 117 million cwt of potatoes this
season, down 8 percent from the same period last year and down 8 percent
from 2 years ago. Dehydrating usage accounted for 21.5 million cwt of the
total processing, down 15 percent from last year and 23 percent below the
same period in 2007.



                   FALL POTATOES:  Production and Stocks on
                            March 1, 2008-2009 1/

                       Crop of 2007                        Crop of 2008
                          Stocks     Percent                  Stocks     Percent
 State                   March 1,      of                    March 1,      of
            Production    2008     Production   Production      2009   Production

                 1,000 cwt.          Percent         1,000 cwt.          Percent

 CA              3,729      1,100     29             3,939      1,000     25
 CO             20,981      9,500     45            21,338     10,900     51
 ID            130,010     60,500     47           114,805     54,000     47
 ME             16,668      8,000     48            14,769      7,100     48
 MI             14,700      3,700     25            14,875      3,500     24
 MN             21,560      8,200     38            20,400      8,700     43
 MT              3,696      3,100     84             3,465      3,000     87
 NE              8,217      3,000     37             8,342      3,500     42
 NY              5,216      1,200     23             5,696        800     14
 ND             23,660      8,000     34            22,680      8,100     36
 OR             20,293     11,600     57            18,676      9,800     52
 WA            100,800     35,400     35            93,000     31,400     34
 WI             28,160     10,100     36            25,730      9,200     36

  13 States    397,753    163,400     41           367,715    151,000     41

  Klamath
Basin 2/                    2,050                               2,000

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.




S.C. Ropel, B.L. Smith, W.G.Lemmons, Statisticians