# The potato market, explained How the numbers on this site actually work: FOB and the mostly range, carton counts and the per-cwt board, origin rotation and the storage crop, cartons versus sacks. Each guide is built on the same live data as the trackers, so the examples are real and current. ## The data behind the site - [How to read a USDA potato shipping point report](https://therussetreport.com/guides/how-to-read-a-usda-potato-price-report.md) — A USDA potato shipping point report is USDA Market News's daily record of what potatoes actually sold for FOB at the packing shed, before freight. Each line names an origin, variety, pack, size or count and grade, then a low-high price and usually a tighter mostly range where the bulk of the day's sales landed. - [Fresh vs process: why fry contracts don't set your FOB](https://therussetreport.com/guides/fresh-vs-process-why-fry-contracts-dont-set-your-fob.md) — Fry and chip contracts do not set the fresh potato price because most processing volume, well over half the US crop, is contracted privately before the season and never quoted. The fresh tablestock market, the potatoes packed in cartons, sacks and bags for grocery and foodservice, is the open price-discovery arena this site reports, and the two can diverge in a given year. ## Sizes, packs and counts - [Carton counts explained: why a 40-count costs more than a 90-count](https://therussetreport.com/guides/carton-counts-explained.md) — The count on a potato carton is the number of potatoes it takes to fill a 50 lb box, so a lower count is a bigger potato and a higher price. A 40-count holds about forty big bakers near 20 ounces each while a 100-count holds a hundred small ones near 8 ounces, and normalizing both per hundredweight is what makes the counts comparable. - [Potato grades: US No. 1 vs No. 2 in plain terms](https://therussetreport.com/guides/potato-grades-us-no-1-vs-no-2.md) — US No. 1 is USDA's standard fresh potato grade, fairly well shaped and free from serious defects with a 1 and 7/8 inch size floor, while US No. 2 allows more misshape and defect down to a 1 and 1/2 inch floor. Potatoes throw more No. 2 than most crops, and the No. 1 to No. 2 spread widens in a rough storage year as the grade-out rises. - [Cartons, sacks and consumer bags: pack economics](https://therussetreport.com/guides/cartons-sacks-and-consumer-bags-pack-economics.md) — Potatoes ship wholesale in cartons, sacks, baled consumer bags and 2000 lb bulk totes, and the same potatoes carry different prices by pack. A carton and a sack are quoted per 50 lb package while a tote is quoted per hundredweight, so the raw numbers are not comparable until you put them all on a per-hundredweight basis. ## Origins and the calendar - [The US potato calendar: who ships when](https://therussetreport.com/guides/the-us-potato-calendar-who-ships-when.md) — Most US potatoes come from fall-harvested storage regions, Idaho, the Columbia Basin, Wisconsin and Colorado's San Luis Valley, that ship from their cellars through winter and spring, while the Red River Valley anchors reds and yellows and Florida and California run the fresh winter and spring crops. Potato price action is largely this origin rotation, one region handing the market off to the next. - [Storage potatoes: why prices move in spring](https://therussetreport.com/guides/storage-potatoes-why-prices-move-in-spring.md) — Potato prices often firm from winter into spring because the storage crop is harvested once in the fall and only drawn down, so the old crop tightens as the season ages. Shrink and quality loss in the cellar, a rising grade-out that pulls sound US No. 1 stock out of the pile and the timing of new-crop relief are the mechanics behind the seasonal move. ## Varieties - [Russet, red, yellow, white, fingerling: how variety moves price](https://therussetreport.com/guides/potato-varieties-and-how-they-move-price.md) — Russets carry the US potato market, about 70 percent of planted acres, so they set the reference price and the other varieties are read against them. Reds, yellows, whites and fingerlings are smaller, fresher markets that turn faster and can swing harder, and russets are graded by carton count while round reds and yellows are graded Size A and Size B. ## Prices and how they move - [What moves potato prices](https://therussetreport.com/guides/what-moves-potato-prices.md) — Potato prices move on supply because demand is famously steady: acreage decisions, growing-season weather at each origin, how well the storage crop holds, freight and export pull. The supply story dominates, so a big move on the board almost always traces to a short crop, a quality problem, a thin handoff between regions or a freight jump. --- Canonical URL: https://therussetreport.com/guides