Overview
Potatoes are the leading vegetable crop in the United States (not including sweet potatoes), contributing about 15 percent of farm sales receipts for vegetables. Among major produce crops, potatoes are second only to grapes in farm cash receipts. Americans consume about 130 pounds of fresh and processed potatoes annually, 40 pounds more than tomatoes, the next most commonly eaten vegetable. Over 50 percent of potato sales are to processors for french fries, chips, dehydrated potatoes, and other potato products, while the remainder goes to the fresh market.
Newsletter
Vegetables and Melons Outlook
is an all-electronic, every-other-month, newsletter providing
current intelligence and forecasts of changing conditions
in the U.S. vegetable and melon sector. The newsletter
contains a section on potatoes, as well as appendix tables
with current potato data.
Recommended Readings
2008 Farm Bill Side-By-Side (August 2008) presents a title-by-title summary of key provisions of the 2008 Act in a side-by-side comparison with previous legislation. The side-by-side includes links to related ERS publications and to analyses of previous farm acts. New features include a user's guide, an A-Z list of major provisions, and a search function.
Commodity Highlight: Potato Chips (April 2008) explains how potatoes consumed as potato chips have risen from 11.4 pounds per person in 1960 to 19.3 pounds in 2007. About 38 percent of all households consuming potato chips are located in the southern United States. Potatoes used for chipping are largely produced and consumed domestically, with relatively small volumes traded internationally.
Relaxing
Fruit and Vegetable Planting Restrictions (February 2007) finds that
market effects would likely be limited and confined to
specific regions and commodities. Eliminating these planting
restrictions for commodity program participants might
enable some producers to switch from program crops to
fruit and vegetables in such areas as California, the
upper Midwest and the coastal plain in the Southeastern
States. For the full report, see Eliminating
Fruit and Vegetable Planting Restrictions: How Would Markets
be Affected? (November 2006).
Fruit and
Vegetable Backgrounder (April 2008) describes the economic characteristics
of the U.S. fruit and vegetable industry, providing supply,
demand, and policy background for an industry that accounts
for nearly a third of U.S. crop cash receipts and a fifth
of U.S. agricultural exports. A variety of challenges
face this complex and diverse industry in both domestic
and international markets, ranging from immigration reform
and its effect on labor availability to international
competitiveness.
Regulatory
Barriers in International Horticultural Markets (January 2004) examines
the impact of multilateral trade rules on the use of sanitary
and phytosanitary measures applied to fruit and vegetable
imports. These rules have lowered many unnecessary barriers
to horticultural trade, primarily through requirements
that regulations be transparent and based on science.
French
Fries Driving Globalization of Frozen Potato Industry (October 2002) examines the growth of the frozen potato industry
and the global expansion of potato production and processing.
While traditional markets for frozen potato products such
as the United States, Europe, Canada, and Japan show signs
of maturing, potential growth markets still exist, particularly
in Asia and South America.
Recommended Data Products
Most recent tables from Vegetable and Melons Outlook
containing acreage, production, prices, crop values, U.S.
trade, and more for potatoes (Excel ,
PDF)
and sweet potatoes (Excel,
PDF).
Potato
Statistics provides time-series tables (Excel format)
describing U.S. potato production and disposition data
by State and season, including acreage, yield, production
sold, value of sales, and sales per harvested acre.
Vegetables
and Melons Yearbook contains 141 tables in spreadsheets
(Excel format) detailing 25 years of annual and monthly
data for U.S. acreage, production, prices, trade, per
capita use, grower cash receipts, and more.
Related Briefing Rooms
Agricultural Baseline Projections
U.S. Agricultural Trade
Vegetables and Melons
Food
Market Systems in the U.S.
Related Links
Links to other USDA and Federal agencies concerned with
potatoes.
See all related links...
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