Chip potato movement is picking up. Michigan shipped 49,000 cwt during the week ending August 6, up from 7,000 cwt a week earlier. The harvest is winding down in Virginia, Ohio, and North Carolina. US shipments for the week ending August 6 totaled 795,000 cwt, three times more than reported movement a year ago.
At 39,000 cwt, Michigan’s July chip potato shipments exceeded 2021 movement by 18,000 cwt, an 86.0% increase. They more than doubled the 5-year average July movement. The state’s total chipstock movement for the August 2021-July 2022 season fell 659,000 cwt short of year-earlier shipments, a 6.0% decline.
July US chip potato shipments exceeded 2021 movement by 2.3%. At 5.93 million cwt, that is 133,000 cwt more than the industry shipped a year earlier. July 2022 movement was the largest on record. Strong shipments from Ohio (+373,000 cwt) and the Mid-Central region (+268,000 cwt) were the largest factors in the increase. In contrast, Wisconsin (-245,000 cwt), North Carolina (-114,000 cwt), and the Southwest region (-114,000 cwt) reported reduced movement during July. US chip potato shipments for the August 2021-July 2022 season totaled 57.14 million cwt. That fell 521,000 cwt short of year-earlier movement, a 0.9% decline.
US packers shipped 1.182 million cwt of table potatoes during the week ending August 6, 2022. That is down from 1.529 million cwt a year earlier. USDA did not report any Michigan potato shipments during the week ending August 6, 2022. There were no reported table potato shipments a year ago.
The weighted average shipping point price for Idaho Russet Burbanks is $48.79 per cwt, up from $44.34 per cwt last week. The weighted average shipping point price for new-crop Idaho Russet Norkotahs is $54.88 per cwt.