Potato Market Intel
The weekly read on North American potato movement, price and delivered cost.
Every indicator is a percentile against the same growing area's own history at the same point in the season — never an absolute threshold. Idaho in October and Wisconsin in February are not comparable on raw volume or raw dollars, and a fixed cut-off just re-reports the seasonal calendar as though it were news. Ranking each reading against the same area in the same weeks of prior seasons is what turns "1.4 million cwt" into "the heaviest week for this point in the season in five years".
Delivered cost, not FOB
FOB plus freight into each destination, compared on one matched carton. It routinely disagrees with the FOB table — an area quoting $1.50/cwt under Idaho is not the cheaper option into Boston if its lane costs $2.00/cwt more. A rep comparing FOB alone is comparing the wrong number.
Indicators you can check
Each signal carries what actually followed it historically, measured out of sample, and says so plainly when the record is too thin to claim anything. An indicator published without its caveat is a claim, not a reading.
What is not in it
No opinion about where the market should go. No regional preference. No private order-book data, no advertising, and no number that somebody typed in because it felt about right. Every figure is computed from public USDA reports by the same method every week — and the method does not know who is reading.
That is what lets a Kroger buyer, an Idaho shipper, a Colorado grower and a distributor all subscribe to the same letter without any of them feeling they are reading somebody else's sales sheet. It is not seller-friendly or buyer-friendly. It is information-friendly.
What is in every edition
National conditions
Movement for the week against last week and last season, the Potato Market Pressure Index with its band, the price signal, and the four weeks ahead with the basis they were derived from.
Every growing area
Idaho, the San Luis Valley, Wisconsin, the Columbia Basin and the Red River Valley — index, momentum, price signal and the large-over-small carton spread, with areas between crops stated as such rather than scored.