Vegetable/Potato Industry Snapshot

Fresh market vegetables

• Little news here as crops have not been planted yet in most areas.

Processed vegetables

• Major processors in Western NY are long on inventory following the COVID-era boom when everyone stocked up on canned goods. They are now cutting back on contracted volumes in an attempt to bring supplies into better balance with demand. 

Potatoes

• The 2024 Maine potato harvest was completed in a timely manner by mid-October.  The overall average yield came in approximately 20 cwt/acre more than last year’s average. Crop quality has generally been excellent; however, some minor storage issues have surfaced since harvest but are not nearly as severe as 2023’s crop that experienced much higher levels of storage breakdown.  Most issues have been in the french fry processing inventory and have generally been dealt with by moving the inventory to the local processors, resulting in little to no actual loss to the grower.  It does not appear at this time that Maine should see a repeat of that situation with the 2024 crop.     
• USDA currently estimates Maine’s overall average yield at 340 cwt per acre across the 53,700 harvested acres for a total harvest of 18.26 million cwt.  That is an increase of 1.46 million cwt from the 2023 crop or nearly a 9% increase.  Some individual growers ran out of storage and had to rent additional storage to get their crop under cover.  Nationally, USDA estimates US potato production to be down by 22.8 million cwt or 5.1%.  Washington, Idaho, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin are all forecast to have reduced production from last year due to a combination of acreage cuts and slightly lower average yields.  The combined reduction for these five states is 20.55 million cwt, while other states, like Maine saw increased production or production similar to last year.  
• Presently the majority of the Maine crop is being shipped under contract.  Contract volumes are unchanged from last year, while contract prices are flat to down 1-2%.  With the increased average yields and improved quality from 2023, most Maine processing growers should see higher gross incomes when compared to the 2023 crop.  Demand for french fries appears to be good globally, as the 3rd quarter saw a 1.2% increase in the global french fry trade, the equivalent of 2.28BN pounds.  
• Open market table prices have generally improved since the end of harvest across the US but remain approximately 7% lower than last year in most shipping areas, with a few exceptions.  An increased potato crop in Canada, along with solid early season disappearance is likely contributing to the reduction in pricing.  Quality is also improved in the tablestock crop, resulting in reduced shrink as compared to 2023.  This will help to mute the effects of the lower pricing.
• The seed sector in Maine is currently seeing good demand for seed.  Shipments have begun into areas of Florida for the spring potato crop there.  Pricing for seed has generally seen an increase particularly in the pricing for local processing growers.  This is mainly due to the processing growers contract value increase over the last few years.  These pricing adjustments are seen as necessary to offset what has been an ongoing cost of production increase in the seed sector.  Virus levels for Maine seed are not yet known, but field readings were once again low (a good thing) and seed growers are optimistic that overall virus levels will trend downward from the past few years.