Varieties
Well above normalRusset potato prices
Russet potato FOB across origins, 70-count 50 lb carton, USDA shipping point reports
Data through Aug 27, 2026 · source last checked Aug 28, 2026 · page revised Aug 28, 2026
Cite
- Columbia Basin
- San Luis Valley
- Idaho
- Wisconsin
About this data
- Source
- USDA AMS shipping point potato FOB reports (FV130)
- Series
- Russet potatoes, FOB per hundredweight
- Basis
- FOB shipping point, per hundredweight
- Geography
- Across US growing origins
- Unit
- $/50 lb carton
- Last observation
- Aug 27, 2026
- Update frequency
- USDA reports on business days
Mostly $18.00/50 lb carton, 13% above the 5-yr median. Comparison midpoint: $18.00/50 lb carton.
Russet potatoes mostly $18.00, 70-count 50 lb carton, 13% above the 5-yr median. San Luis Valley at $20.00, Idaho at $19.00 and Columbia Basin at $18.00. Wisconsin data is stale from 2025-11-03.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | $18.00/50 lb carton | $17.00/50 lb carton | +5.9% |
| Month over month | $18.00/50 lb carton | $14.50/50 lb carton | +24.1% |
| Year over year | $18.00/50 lb carton | $15.00/50 lb carton | +20.0% |
| vs 5-yr median | $18.00/50 lb carton | $16.00/50 lb carton | +12.5% |
Previous weeks
An earlier week
Mostly $17.00, 70-count 50 lb carton, up $2.50 on the week and $4.00 on the month but 24% below the five-year median. Columbia Basin mostly $17.00, San Luis Valley mostly $15.00. Idaho has not reported since July 2.
Week of Aug 10, 2026
Russet 70-count cartons at $13.00, 50 lb carton, holding flat on the week after a $1.50 month-over-month gain. Prices remain 26% below the five-year median and $2.00 below year-ago.
About Russet potato prices
The russet is the potato the rest of the market is read against. It runs about 70 percent of US planted acres, by USDA's Economic Research Service, and it is the potato behind the baked potato and the fry. Four storage regions quote it in almost every week of the year: Idaho, the Columbia Basin across Washington and Oregon, Colorado's San Luis Valley and Wisconsin. All four dig in the fall, cure the crop and ship out of storage for months, which is why russet quotes rarely go quiet the way a fresh-crop variety's do.
Most fry and dehydration volume never reaches this page. That tonnage is contracted with processors before the season at prices nobody publishes. What the FOB prices here cover is the fresh tablestock trade, the cartons, sacks and consumer bags that go to grocery and foodservice.
Russets are size-graded by count, the number of potatoes it takes to fill a 50 lb carton, so a 40-count is a big baker and a 100-count is small stock. See the carton-count spread for what that ladder is worth per hundredweight. Because the supply base is deep and russet demand is steady, russet prices usually move in slower, longer steps than reds or yellows do, and the shape of a russet year is a storage-year shape: prices work off the pile as the cellars draw down, then reset when new crop starts relieving the old.
Common questions
What is the current russet potato price?
mostly $18.00 ($36.00/cwt) FOB at the shipping point, 70-count 50 lb carton out of Columbia Basin, as of Aug 27, 2026, per USDA shipping point reports. USDA publishes a range rather than a single figure, and the chart above compares that same pack across every origin currently quoting it.
Which origins ship russet potatoes?
Columbia Basin, San Luis Valley, Idaho, Wisconsin are the districts quoting russet in 70-count 50 lb carton on this page. Each district runs its own season, so which origins appear changes through the year. The US potato calendar covers the handoffs, and the origin pages carry each district on its own.
Why is the price shown as a range?
Because that is what USDA publishes. A shipping point quote is a low-high range across the confirmed sales for that origin, pack and grade, and where the volume supports it USDA also prints a tighter mostly range where the bulk of the trading landed. A single number would be a midpoint nobody actually paid. How to read the USDA National Potato and Onion Report walks through one line field by field.
Is this a retail price?
No. FOB means free on board at the shipping point: the potatoes loaded on a truck at the packing shed, before a mile of freight. A grocery price adds the haul, the wholesaler, the retailer's margin and shrink on top, and it moves far more slowly than the FOB quote does.