U.S. Potato Exports Top $1.5 Billion

By CnAgri2012-09-07 19:27:48 Print

The United States Potato Board International Marketing program announced that U.S. exports of all potatoes and potato products for the past fiscal year were 1,506,557 metric tons valued at $1.5 billion. This was a 10 percent increase in volume and a 17 percent increase in value over the previous marketing year and 43 percent increase from five years ago. The export volume is 65,271,616 cwt on a fresh weight equivalent basis.

This growth was led by a 17 percent increase in exports of frozen potato products and an 8 percent increase in dehy exports, despite tight supplies of both products in the U.S. The only reductions in exports were a decline of 1 percent in potato chips and a 21 percent decrease in seed exports; however, the figures for seed are not reliable.

Exports of fresh potatoes were valued at $204,490,379, an increase of 10 percent, with volume at 407,114 MT or 8,981,087 cwt, up 2 percent. Fresh exports, which include table-stock potatoes, but also those destined for chipping or freezing in the foreign country, were hampered by a 12 percent decline in shipments to Canada, the largest U.S. market. Exports to the second largest market, Mexico, rose 10 percent to 72,159 MT or 1,590,817 cwt.