Potato losses during the first three months of storage for processing

Abstract

This survey attempts to define the range of U.S. potato losses and their causes during the first three months of storage. The sampling of three respondent groups included a local storage region, the processing industry, and the federal inspection service (USDA). Questionnaires indicated 64 to 150 thousand metric tons were annually lost during early storage from the total crop stored for processing. This constitutes a range of 5.6–13.2 million dollars lost in production costs. Mechanical damage, inclement weather, and disease were assigned similar causative rankings for persistent loss in early storage by all three groups; however, synergistic combinations of losscausing factors and geographic differences were also noted.