Origins
Well above normalSan Luis Valley potato prices
Shipping point FOB prices and shipment volume for San Luis Valley, USDA reports
Data through Nov 3, 2026 · source last checked Nov 4, 2026 · page revised Nov 4, 2026
Cite
- San Luis Valley (CO) (norkotah)
- San Luis Valley (CO) (norkotah other varieties)
- USDA mostly / low-high range
About this data
- Source
- USDA AMS shipping point potato FOB reports (FV130) and Daily Movement (FV170)
- Series
- Potato FOB price at a benchmark variety, pack and size
- Basis
- FOB shipping point, low-high range
- Geography
- San Luis Valley
- Unit
- $/50 lb carton
- Last observation
- Nov 3, 2026
- Update frequency
- USDA reports on business days
$21.00-24.00/50 lb carton, 82% above the 4-yr median. Comparison midpoint: $22.50/50 lb carton.
San Luis Valley Norkotah mostly $21.00-24.00, 50 lb carton, trading 82% above the 4-year median. Prices have advanced sharply from $9.00 a year ago.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | $22.50/50 lb carton | $22.50/50 lb carton | 0.0% |
| Month over month | $22.50/50 lb carton | $20.00/50 lb carton | +12.5% |
| Year over year | $22.50/50 lb carton | $9.00/50 lb carton | +150.0% |
| vs 4-yr median | $22.50/50 lb carton | $12.38/50 lb carton | +81.8% |
Previous weeks
An earlier week
San Luis Valley norkotahs are $21.00-24.00, 50 lb carton, and running 80% above the 4-yr median. Month-over-month prices gained 12.5%, while year-over-year they have more than doubled from $9.00. The market held flat on the week.
Week of Oct 30, 2026
San Luis Valley norkotahs, $21.00-24.00/50 lb carton, sit 80% above the 4-yr median. Pricing is flat week over week but 150% higher year over year.
An earlier week
San Luis Valley Norkotahs at $22.00/50 lb carton, up from $21.00 on the week and holding 76% above the 4-yr median of $12.50. Year over year, price has more than doubled from $9.00/50 lb carton.
An earlier week
San Luis Valley Norkotahs at mostly $21.00-23.00, 50 lb carton, are trading 73% above the 4-yr median. Prices gained 4.8% on the week, 10.0% month over month, and 144.4% year over year.
About San Luis Valley potato prices
The San Luis Valley in southern Colorado is a high-altitude growing region, most of it above 7,500 feet, which gives it a short frost-free season and cool nights that specialty and seed growers value. Colorado is the country's number two potato-producing state, and nearly all of that production runs through this one valley.
On this site the San Luis Valley is, in practice, a russet origin: the handful of yellow and red quotes it has recorded are a rounding error next to its russet volume, sold mostly in 50 lb cartons by count with baled consumer bags behind it. Like Idaho, the Columbia Basin and Wisconsin, it digs in the fall and ships from storage across most of the year rather than in a short fresh-crop window. USDA movement data reported simply as "Colorado" folds into this origin. The valley is also a specialty and seed-potato producer, though that trade runs outside the shipping point reports this site tracks. Compare it with the other three storage russet regions on the russet page.
Against the national benchmark. The quotes on this page are San Luis Valley's alone. For the single figure the trade quotes as the market, potato prices today follows Idaho's 70-count russet carton per carton, per hundredweight, per pound and per potato, with the date of USDA's latest quote.
Season. San Luis Valley potatoes typically ship July through March, based on where USDA movement volumes concentrate over the year. Outside that window fresh shipping point quotes thin out, which is normal crop rotation, not a data gap.
Common questions
What is the current price of San Luis Valley potatoes?
San Luis Valley 70-count Norkotah russets in 50 lb cartons sold for $21.00-24.00/50 lb carton ($42.00-48.00/cwt, $0.42-0.48/lb) FOB at the shipping point on Nov 3, 2026, per USDA shipping point reports. Across the count ladder that day, 40-count cartons sold for $21.00-24.00/50 lb carton and 100-count cartons for mostly $15.00/50 lb carton. The same day, the San Luis Valley quoted Size A Norkotah russets in 10×5 lb bales at mostly $10.00/10×5 lb bale. These are wholesale prices for potatoes loaded at the packing shed, before freight, not grocery prices.
How do San Luis Valley potato prices compare with last year?
At range midpoints, the russet 70-count 50 lb carton is $22.50/50 lb carton, up 150% from $9.00/50 lb carton a year earlier and 82% above its 4-yr median of $12.38/50 lb carton for the date. That is the Norkotah quote the chart and table above track.
Why do San Luis Valley potato prices change?
The San Luis Valley ships out of storage for most of the year, so its price moves in steps through the storage season as shippers and buyers read how much is left in the cellars and how it is keeping, and the new crop sets the next level once digging starts. In the 12 months to Nov 3, 2026, the russet 70-count 50 lb carton midpoint ran from $8.00/50 lb carton (Nov 4, 2025) to $22.50/50 lb carton (Oct 23, 2026), and it changed on 21 of its 242 report days; the biggest one-day move was +$3.50/50 lb carton on Aug 25, 2026. What moves potato prices covers the supply side in more depth.
How many potatoes does the San Luis Valley ship?
USDA's Daily Movement reports logged 14.2 million cwt of fresh San Luis Valley potato shipments in the 12 months to Nov 2, 2026, across 245 report days, 6% more than the 12 months before. By type, that volume was 84% russet, 13% yellow and 2% red. The latest day on record, Nov 2, 2026, logged 38,756 cwt. A hundredweight (cwt) is 100 lb.