On February 1, 2023, total Canadian potato storage holdings were 5.8% higher than the three-year average, primarily as a result of larger crop sizes in the previous two years, but they were down somewhat (-1.8% over 2022 statistics for the same date).

“Based on the disappearance figures, there were 545,000 tons of potatoes shipped from storage in January 2023, 9.7% higher than in January 2022 and 14.7% higher than pre-covid (2019) numbers. Most provinces saw a decrease in shipments of Fresh potatoes in January, typical post-holiday, except for Quebec, Manitoba, and Alberta, however, all provinces shipped more processing potatoes in January over December and in the Seed sector Alberta had a good increase in shipments for January, with most other provinces on par for seed shipments compared to December,” according to the latest UPGC report.

Canadian growers and packers shipped 145,000 tons of fresh potatoes during January, only 0.2% higher than shipments for December, but up 23.4% compared to shipments in January of 2022.

“There is of course the impact of the US border closure to PEI potatoes in November 2021 which would have had an impact on total Canadian shipment for January, however even if we compare to other previous years, you would need to go back to 2018 to get a comparable number for January movement of fresh potatoes. Although some packers reported feeling sales have been somewhat slower this past month, the numbers do show increased movement and that perhaps it is more of a perception after a very busy pre-holiday period than an actual slowdown,” the UPGC experts added.

They persist to see a tight market for processing potatoes, with most provinces showing a decrease when comparing 2022-2023 and 2021-2022 holdings at the same time, except Alberta, which is still showing increased processing potato holdings, that is surprising given the increased planted acreage and production this season.

“There were 385,000 tons of processing potatoes shipped in January 2023, an increase of 18.1% over December and a 19.1% increase over January 2022. The 2.16m tons in storage as of February 1st is still 7.5% higher than the 3-year average reflecting the continued increase in demand in the processing sector and therefore increased planted acres. There continues to be a very tight market across the continent in the processing sector and, despite having the largest increase in potatoes on hand in Alberta, it may still require Western Canada and the US to import potatoes to keep their expanded processing plants running at full capacity,” the document reveals.

On February 1, 2023, seed inventory is 505,000 tons, which is just 4.9% higher than the three-year average and 3.1% higher than the same period last year. The movement of seed potatoes in January 2023 increased by around 12% over December shipments, with over 75% of the 20,000 tons leaving Alberta. However, movement in January 2023 is up slightly more than 39% when compared to exports in January 2022, possibly indicating a tighter overall seed market in North America and specific varieties being planted soon in select locations of the continent. Even though the overall seed crop grown in 2023 compared to previous years, seed scarcity is geographical and varietal, with a rise in processing demand outpacing the growing availability of some seeds.