Approximately 50 percent of potato sales are to processors for french fries, chips, dehydrated potatoes and potato products; the remainder goes to the fresh market.
Potatoes are currently the leading vegetable crop in the United States.
Between 2005 and 2009, the United States imported an average of $886 million in potatoes and potato products. Canada is the largest supplier, followed distantly by Mexico, the Netherlands, and Germany.
Canada’s potato exports to the United States consists mostly of frozen french fries and other frozen potato products. Mexico mainly supplies chips and prepared/preserved (canned) products, while the bulk of imports from Germany and the Netherlands are starches and other dehydrated products.
The use of fresh potatoes has decreased from a high of 81 pounds per person per year in 1960, to an average of 42 pounds per person per year in 2000.
