Posts Tagged “Washington potato shipments”
Total potato loadings from U.S. shipping areas are expected to be down five percent for the 2013-14 shipping season, but spud haulers shouldn’t really notice a difference, since it is such a large crop. A similar sitution exists with Canadian potato shipments.
Overall, the two countries combined means there are only three percent fewer potatoes for loading in North America. The total is still a huge 501 million cwt. (per hundred weight).
Of that amount, about 398 million cwt. of the potatoes will be shipped from U.S. production areas than the previous season, according to USDA statistics. Canada will provide about 103 million cwt. of loads, two percent more than the previous year.
The U.S. had about 942,000 acres of potatoes planted, down from about 1 million acres the year before. However, yields rose from 423 cwt to 427 cwt per acre. Acreage also was down in Canada but yields were up significantly, rising from 274 cwt to 292 cwt per acre.
Here’s a glimpse at a few of the major potato shipping states.
Idaho Potato Shipments – The state ships a lot of spuds by rail, but trucks still transport the majority of the loads. Most pick ups orginate from the Upper Valley and the Twin Falls – Burley District. Idaho is averaging around 1,650 truckload equivalents of potatoes being loaded each week.
You should gross about $4350 to Atlanta.
Colorado Potato Shipments – The San Luis Valley is averaging nearly 700 truck loads of potatoes per week.
You should gross about $4100 to New York City.
Wisconsin Potato Shipments – Most loads are originating from shippers within a 50 mile radius or so of Stevens Point in the Central part of the state.
You should gross around $1400 to Cleveland.
Washington Potato Shipments
Spud loadings are originating out of the Columbia Basin and just across the state line in Oregon’s Umatilla Basin. There’s about 325 loads of potatoes a week soming out of here. They are also shipping even more onions than spuds – about 800 loads a week.
You should gross about $3000 to Chicago.
There still will be a lot of potatoes for hauling this season which will extend into next summer despite the fall crop in the United States being down 5 percent compared to 2012.
Here’s a glimpse of the leading potato shipping states:
Idaho 132.9 million hundred weight (cwt)., down 6.3 percent; Washington 96 million, up less than 1 percent; Wisconsin 27.9 million, down 5.2 percent; Oregon 21.6 million, down 5.9 percent; Colorado 20.3 million, down 1.5 percent; Michigan 16.8 million, up 5.4 percent.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $5400 to New York City.
Washington Potato Shipments
Year to date, loadings have been running a little ahead of schedule compared to recent years.
Most of this is due to early season shipments in July and August when potato supplies were very short across the country. Washington’s fresh producers account for 26,000 acres of the 160,000 acres of potatoes in the Evergreen State. About half of that total are russet potatoes, and the other half is a mix of reds, yellows, whites and other specialty potatoes.
Washington state, Columbia Basin potatoes – grossing about $4800 to Atlanta.
Red River Valley Potato Shipments
The North Dakota potato crop will come in at 22.6 million cwt. down about 10.1 percent from last year. Some folks were forecasting shipments to be down 25 to 30 percent at one point.
81,000 acres were planted in North Dakota compared to 88,000 last year, and harvested acres dipped from 84,000 last year to 78,000 this year.
Potato production in Minnesota dropped from 18.8 million cwt. in 2012 to 17.5 million this year, a drop of just under 7 percent. All but 2,000 of the 47,000 planted acres planted in Minnesota were harvested.
Red River Valley potatoes – grossing about $1900 to Chicago.