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How to read this
Every page is built the same way, so once you read one you can read all of them.
The FOB chart
The shaded band is USDA's price range for the origin, pack and size on the page: the mostly range where USDA publishes one, the full low-high range where it does not. The line through the band is the midpoint, drawn only so the chart has a spine to follow. The dot marks the latest reading. A range, not a single line, because a single number would misrepresent what USDA actually published. Where one origin spans two USDA districts, each district's line is drawn and the band belongs to the origin's headline district.
Carton counts and the per-cwt board
A 50 lb russet carton is size-graded by count, the number of potatoes that fill the box, from a 40-count carton of big bakers to a 100-count of small ones. Lower count is a bigger potato and usually a higher price. Because a carton, a sack and a baled bag are priced on different weights, every FOB price is also carried per hundredweight, so the whole board compares on one scale. The counts page shows the full spread from 40 to 100 for the headline russet district, per cwt.
The movement chart
Movement is the volume shipped, reported separately from price and quoted in hundredweight the way the potato trade counts it. Rising movement with falling price, or the reverse, is a real signal: more supply pushing price down, or firm demand holding it up on less volume. On an import page the movement is the border-crossing volume. Watch price and movement together, not price alone.
The 5-year comparison
Where enough history exists, a page compares the current reading against the same week over the prior five years. That is the yardstick for whether a price is normal for the time of year, separate from the plain week-over-week move. Comparisons appear only once real history has accrued; a newly-tracked series will not claim a five-year read it cannot back up.
The table
Under or beside the chart is the same data as numbers: the latest reading and how it moved week over week, month over month, year over year, and against the five-year median where available. The chart is for the glance; the table is for the decision.
The note
One short paragraph in plain English, leading with the number that matters. It only uses figures already on the page. It quotes prices as USDA published them, as a mostly range with the pack named, and it never forecasts.
What we do not say
We do not predict FOB prices, movement, or crop transitions. We report USDA shipping point data as published. This is not trading, contracting, legal, or financial advice.
How often it updates
USDA publishes shipping point reports most business days. The trailing weeks are pulled and a brief that reads the week's movements goes out once a week. Every page carries a visible data date and a Last updated stamp so you always know how fresh the reading is.
New to the vocabulary? The glossary defines every term the brief uses.