Potato Stocks Down in Idaho

 Potato stocks held by growers, dealers and processors in Idaho in February totaled 64 million gross hundred weight…75 million less than were on hand in February 2008. Disappearance at 50.8 million is down from 58.5 million. Stocks in the ten Southwest counties are down from 3.6 million to 3.2. The USDA’s statistical expert, Tom Kurtz, discusses: “Our stocks for February 1 are down 10% from a year ago this time but if you look at our production for the year 2008 that was down 12% so it’s kind of tracking with change in production for 2008 cause they had cut back quite a bit in acreage in 2008 and ended up producing fewer potatoes to start with and to have in storage to begin the seasons. It’s a reflection of the lower production and the pace that they’re moving it out when you look at it as a proportion of the crop, it’s fairly comparable to what they’ve done in the past. They just started with a smaller set to work with. If you just skim the surface of it, you would assume that acreage and stuff would go up some in 2008 because the prices have been running a little bi better than they have been for the last few years but I know that one of United’s goals at lot of times is to kinda hold down their production for the state because they know that if it goes up too much then the growers end up not doing as well because the price goes down as production goes up.”