Varieties
Well below normalYellow potato prices
Yellow potato FOB across origins, size a 50 lb sack, USDA shipping point reports
Data through Jul 10, 2026 · source last checked Aug 28, 2026 · page revised Aug 28, 2026
Cite
- California
- Florida
- Red River Valley
- Wisconsin
- Virginia
About this data
- Source
- USDA AMS shipping point potato FOB reports (FV130)
- Series
- Yellow potatoes, FOB per hundredweight
- Basis
- FOB shipping point, per hundredweight
- Geography
- Across US growing origins
- Unit
- $/50 lb sack
- Last observation
- Jul 10, 2026
- Update frequency
- USDA reports on business days
$13.00-15.50/50 lb sack, 15% below the 4-yr median. Comparison midpoint: $14.25/50 lb sack.
Yellow potatoes mostly $13.00-15.50/50 lb sack through 2026-07-10, 15% below the four-year median. Prices shed 50 cents on the sack month over month.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | $14.25/50 lb sack | $14.25/50 lb sack | 0.0% |
| Month over month | $14.25/50 lb sack | $14.75/50 lb sack | -3.4% |
| Year over year | $14.25/50 lb sack | $15.50/50 lb sack | -8.1% |
| vs 4-yr median | $14.25/50 lb sack | $16.75/50 lb sack | -14.9% |
Previous weeks
An earlier week
Yellow potato FOB mostly $13.00-15.50, 50 lb sack, Size A, flat on the week. Prices fell $0.50 on the month and are running 15 percent below the 4-year median by USDA shipping point reports.
An earlier week
Yellow potatoes are $14.25, 50 lb sack, down 3.4% on the month and 14.9% below the 4-year median. California $14.80, 50 lb sack. Florida $23.50, 50 lb sack.
About Yellow potato prices
Yellow potatoes moved from specialty item to staple in the fresh potato case, and the retail bag is where most of them end up. Like reds they are a fresh-market variety, sold in consumer bags, 50 lb sacks and cartons and bulk totes, and graded as Size A and Size B with creamers below rather than by carton count.
Two origins carry most of the quoted volume. Florida's winter and spring crop quotes from February into June, and the Red River Valley ships yellows out of storage from October into May. Wisconsin covers the fall and early winter, California runs May through July, and New York, Minnesota, Virginia and Delaware fill in around them, so the origin lines on the chart above hand off around the calendar rather than running side by side all year.
The yellow market is thin next to russets and it trades that way. A short crop at one origin, or a change in what a few large retail programs are buying, can move yellow FOB prices while russets sit still. That is what a cross-origin chart is for: when only one line steps, the story is that district's crop, and when the lines move together it is the round-potato market repricing. Read yellows against reds, not against the russet board.
Common questions
What is the current yellow potato price?
$13.00-15.50 ($26.00-31.00/cwt) FOB at the shipping point, size a 50 lb sack out of Wisconsin, as of Jan 16, 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 yellow potatoes?
California, Florida, Red River Valley, Wisconsin, Virginia are the districts quoting yellow in size a 50 lb sack 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.