b'NumberssuppliedbytheUnitedprojected for this shipping season.growerswhocanmastergrowing Potato Growers of America and pre- them.Yields are significantly high-sentedattheirrecentPotatoThis continuing consumer trend haser for the most part, and pricing has Summit in Anaheim, show that U.S.had a tremendous effect on the Redgenerallybeenhigherandmuch yellow potato shipments have near- RiverValleywheretheredpotatomoreconsistent.Theconsistent ly doubled in the last decade, hav- has dominated the fresh market forpricingcomesbecausenosingle ingincreasedfrom5.67millionacentury,andhasmadetheRedgrowing region dominates the mar-hundredweight (cwt.) in 2012-2013RiverValleythelargestredpotatoket,unlikerussetsandredswhere toaprojected10.77millioncwt.growing region in the U.S.pricingishighlydependenton this shipping season. IdahoandtheRedRiverValley Just one decade ago, the Red Riverrespectively. Unfortunately,muchofthesalesValley only grew about 185,000 cwt. growth has come at the expense ofof yellow-skin potatoes which madeYellowpotatosalesatretailcould russet and red potatoes.In the sameuplessthan5%ofthefreshcropsoonmatchorsurpassredsasthe ten-yearperiod,russetshipmentswith the remainder being reds.Thissecond most popular choice for con-have dropped from over 76 millionseason,theRedRiverValleypro- sumers.For many years, many of us cwt. in 2012-2013, down to a pro- duced1.34millioncwt.ofyellowinthepotatoindustryhavebeen jected 65 million cwt. this shippingspuds which accounted for 36.7% ofwaitingfortheconsumershiftto season.Redshipmentshavethe total fresh crop.yellow potatoes to plateau or begin dropped from about 15 million cwt.falling.But as of now, there are no adecadeagoto11.9millioncwt.Yellow potatoes have been good forsign of that happening. FEBRUARY 2022 POTATO GROWER 5'