The potato sector in the United States appears to be able to switch quickly in terms of growth or shrinkage of the potato area in a harvest year. This is apparent from the figures for the upcoming 2020 growing season, in which the potato area will fall sharply.
Depending on the pricing of the previous season, around 3 hectares of potatoes have been planted in the US in the last 2017 years (2018, 2019 and 390.000). In view of the price development of the past 2019 harvest year, due to the excellent worldwide French fries sales, the 2020 harvest was also able to show a stable picture in terms of acreage.
However, the corona crisis is turning things upside down. While in Western Europe everything is done to convince growers to reduce acreage shortly before planting time, it apparently takes less effort in the US. As has now been calculated by the NAPMN (North American Potato Market News), the acreage for harvest year 2020 is approximately 365.000 hectares.
Limit surpluses
In other words: 25.000 hectares less than in the 3 previous harvest years, a contraction of 7%. In a normal growing season in terms of hectare yield, more than 1 million tons less potatoes are harvested. Unfortunately, this shrinkage may sometimes be necessary to somewhat limit the expected surpluses, especially of the deep-frozen end product.
The largest decrease in acreage can be seen in the real chip potato states of Idaho (-13%) and Washington (-15,2%), accounting for a total acreage of almost 180.000 hectares. The rapid switching in the acreage shows how short the lines are between processors and growers to work together to get through the expected difficult 2020/2021 season.