U.S. potato supplies are tight as demand remains strong.

Potato shipments were mixed as holiday season buying boosted demand for a crop that was smaller in some growing areas due to prolonged high heat. Prices increased.

Shipments of potatoes from Idaho, the country’s leading producer, were down by 9.7% year-to-date to nearly 6.74 million hundredweight, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service said in its Nov. 10 Potato and Onion Market Report. Shipments from the Columbia River Basin in Washington were down just shy of 1% to more than 2.2 million hundredweight.

U.S. shipments to date totaled nearly 22.72 million hundredweight, up almost 2.1%. Canadian imports were nearly 2.78 million, up from almost 1.94 million.

Potato production is expected to be down 9% from last year in Idaho, up 3% in Washington and down 4% in Oregon, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service said. Expected U.S. production is 396.89 million hundredweight, down 3.16% from 409.83 million.

A weighted average price for common packs of Idaho Russet Burbanks was $36.84 per hundredweight, up $1.67 or 4.5% from the previous week, North American Potato Market News reported Nov. 10. Columbia Basin packs averaged $34.95, up $2.45 or 7%. A year earlier, Idaho and Columbia Basin prices were $14.14 and $12.23, respectively.

Idaho’s reduction in shipments reflects a smaller crop and efforts by growers and shippers to manage it, said Ross Johnson, vice president of retail and international marketing for the Idaho Potato Commission.

Last year’s supply was expected to be sufficient, but demand surged well above expectations, he said. Contributors to that demand included COVID-19 restrictions easing.

Maine potatoes last spring were shipped to the Northwest to meet continued high demand as packers used up or ran low on local supply.

This year, potato commissions, growers and packer-shippers are working together to make sure the supply lasts, Johnson said.

“That is what is contributing to elevated pricing right now,” he said, “which should reduce retail promotions.”

The Idaho commission will continue to run retail promotions, encouraging retailers to move potatoes to stores’ high-visibility areas near the front, Johnson said.

“We want to keep potatoes top-of-mind for consumers, and keep demand elevated as much as possible,” he said.

The last two crops had lower yields, and COVID-19 concerns reduced contracted acres in 2020 — all contributors to tight supply, said Dale Lathim, Potato Growers of Washington executive director. Producers in the state planted more acres this year to meet some additional processing capacity.

“There appears to be very strong demand for potatoes in all forms,” he said. “We just wish we had a few more potatoes to meet that demand. As a result, the price has been going up.”