POTATO REPORT
                                 April 2009



Seasonal

No. 987-4-09

                      NEW YORK POTATO STOCKS DECREASE

Potato stocks, held for all purposes on April 1, 2009 by New York growers,
dealers, and processors, totaled 450,000 hundredweight (cwt.), down 10
percent from last year according to Steve Ropel, Director of USDA’s
National Agricultural Statistics Service, New York Field Office.  The
estimated disappearance for March 2009 at 350,000 cwt., is down from
700,000 a year ago.  Storage accounted for 8 percent of the 2009 potato
production, down 2 points from a year ago.

The 13 major potato States held 115 million cwt of potatoes in storage
April 1, 2009, down 9 percent from a year ago and 5 percent below April 1,
2007.  Potatoes in storage accounted for 31 percent of the 2008 fall
storage States' production, slightly below April 1, 2008.  Klamath Basin
stocks totaled 1.45 million cwt on April 1, 2009, up 26 percent from a year
ago.  Klamath Basin stocks include potatoes stored in California and
Klamath County, Oregon.

Potato disappearance, at 253 million cwt, was 7 percent below April 1, 2008
and down 6 percent from 2007.  Season-to-date shrink and loss, at 20.6
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 134 million cwt of potatoes
this season, down 7 percent from the same period last year and down 8
percent from 2 years ago.  Dehydrating usage accounted for 24.9 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, 13 Major States,
April 1, 2008-2009 1/

                          Crop of 2007                       Crop of 2008

      State                  Stocks    Percent             Stocks    Stocks    April
                 Production April 1,     of    Production March 1,  April 1, Percent of
                              2008   Production             2009      2009   Production
                      1,000 cwt.       Percent           1,000 cwt.           Percent

  CA                  3,792       600    16         3,939     1,000       800    20
  CO                 20,981     7,500    36        21,338    10,900     8,700    41
  ID                130,010    49,000    38       114,805    54,000    42,500    37
  ME                 16,668     6,400    38        14,769     7,100     5,600    38
  MI                 14,700     2,100    14        14,875     3,500     1,900    13
  MN                 21,560     6,200    29        20,400     8,700     6,500    32
  MT                  3,696     2,100    57         3,465     3,000     2,100    61
  NE                  8,217     2,000    24         8,342     3,500     2,300    28
  NY                  5,216       500    10         5,696       800       450     8
  ND                 23,660     6,000    25        22,680     8,100     6,100    27
  OR                 20,293     9,200    45        18,676     9,800     7,400    40
  WA                100,800    27,500    27        93,000    31,400    23,700    25
  WI 2/              28,160     6,400    23        25,730     9,600     6,500    25

  13 States 2/      397,753   125,500    32       367,715   151,400   114,550    31

  Klamath Basin 3/              1,150                         2,000     1,450

1/  Stocks include processor holdings and most of the seed to plant the following
year's crop.
     Seed usage for all seasons in 2008 totaled 24.5 million cwt.
2/  March 1, 2009 stocks revised.
3/  Includes potato stocks in CA and Klamath Co., OR.  Included in the 13 State total.