Questions
Frequently asked
What this is, where the numbers come from, and what we will not say.
What is this?
A weekly reading of USDA shipping point potato prices, broken out by growing origin, variety and pack, plus a board of what moved. Built for the people who price fresh potatoes for a living: growers, packers, foodservice and retail produce buyers, and brokers who need the FOB number without digging through the raw USDA reports.
Where does the data come from?
Public USDA Agricultural Marketing Service shipping point reports, plus USDA movement, terminal-market and retail-ad reports for context. Every page names its source. No private trade data and no broker relationships, only what USDA publishes.
What does a carton count mean?
On a 50 lb russet carton, the count is the number of potatoes it takes to fill the box. A 40-count carton holds forty big bakers; a 100-count holds a hundred small ones. Lower count means a bigger potato, so the low counts carry a premium. We normalize every count to a per-cwt price so the whole spread compares on one scale.
What does "mostly" mean, and why per cwt?
USDA publishes a low-high price range for each origin, pack and grade, plus a narrower mostly range covering where most of the day's actual sales landed. We quote the mostly range wherever USDA gives one ("mostly $11.00-12.00, 50 lb carton"), never a single invented number. Because packs are priced on different bases, we also carry a per-hundredweight figure so a 50 lb carton, a 50 lb sack and a baled bag sit on one comparable board.
Does this cover fry and chip prices?
No. Most processing volume moves on contracts set before the season, at prices the open market never sees. This site reports the fresh tablestock market, the daily price-discovery arena for growers, packers and produce buyers. The two markets can move apart, and we say so rather than blur them.
Is this trading or contracting advice?
No. This is a reading of public USDA shipping point data as published and how it compares over time. We do not forecast prices, and we do not tell anyone what to buy, sell, or contract for. Decisions are yours, with your own market judgment.