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Released On: 08/29/2008

US Potato Exports Reach Record High

US Potato Exports Reach Record HighFor Second Year in a Row DENVER—(August 29, 2008) Total US potato exports for frozen, fresh, dehydrated, chips and seed potatoes and potato products were valued at $1.11 billion in the July 2007 to June 2008 marketing year (MY2008). This marks an 11.35 percent increase over MY2007 and represents the fifth consecutive year of export growth. The volume of exports increased 10.28 percent for a total of 1.2 million metric tons (MT). The fresh weight equivalent of these exports comes to 53.4 million cwt of potatoes that left the United States for foreign markets.These increases were led by continued growth in the largest export category, frozen potatoes, which grew by 12 percent in volume to 760,355 MT. The value increase was a whopping 20 percent to over $655 million. This growth was led by substantial increases to the United States Potato Board’s (USPB’s) target markets in Asia. Japan, the largest export market, with 38 percent of total frozen exports, grew 6 percent to 269,105 MT.The highest rates of growth were in Southeast Asia where sales to Malaysia were up 69 percent, Thailand—up 32 percent, Indonesia—up 31 percent and the Philippines—up 12 percent. Combined exports to China and Hong Kong reached 76,877 MT—up 22 percent over the previous year.Sales of specialty products helped frozen exports to Korea grow by 21 percent to 33,976 MT. The only real disappointment was a 7 percent decline in exports to Mexico—down to 84,112 MT from 90,433 MT in MY2007. Much of this decline appears to be attributable to very low priced retail product from Canada and the EU eroding US market share at retail. Exports of fresh potatoes (table-stock and chip-stock) increased by 15 percent to 293,230 MT, valued at $135 million. In this case the growth mainly came from Mexico and Canada. Canada accounts for 59 percent of total fresh exports and grew by 4 percent this past year. Mexico is the second largest market. Despite the restrictions on exports to the 26 kilometer frontier zone, exports still grew by 23 percent to 56,588 MT valued at $26 million.The USPB’s target markets in Asia, while much smaller, also imported increased quantities of fresh US Potatoes. This growth was led by fresh potato exports of 12,989 MT to Korea—a 448 percent increase, and 16,000 MT to Taiwan—a 28 percent increase.The largest percentage increase was 769 percent as over 5,000 MT of chipping potatoes were exported to the Philippines. Thailand is also a new and growing chip-stock market with exports up 223 percent to 2,733 MT.Malaysia imports both chip-stock and table-stock and saw an increase of 74 percent up to 7,395 MT. Hong Kong and Singapore are mainly table-stock markets and experienced growth of 5 percent and 19 percent, respectively. Despite the short supplies and significantly higher prices, exports to the USPB’s target markets in Asia were able to remain stable due to strong demand in these markets.Dehydrated potato exports were the only category registering a decline in MY2008, as reduced supplies in the United States restricted availability for the foreign markets. Total exports were down 12 percent by volume to 88,963 MT with value off 7 percent to $132 million. The biggest decline was in exports to Mexico, down 50 percent as demand from the Frito-Lay Stax plant dried up.Seed potato exports remained at roughly the same level with a slight increase to 11,203 MT, valued at $6 million. There was good growth in the USPB’s target markets of Nicaragua and Uruguay, and exports of US Seed Potatoes to Brazil and Sri Lanka were the first ever for these markets.

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