Potato Shortage Causes French Fry Scare

Lately there’s been an incoming demand for potatoes which doesn’t seem like an issue till you realize that the average American eats about 30 pounds of french fries per year (Sloam Fox News, 2018).

The reasoning for the sudden decline of potatoes is for the incoming potatoes failing the preferred size of spud potatoes and being too small to keep the fry demand going, which affects many farmers ability to uphold their contracts to companies like McCain foods corporation- one of the country’s largest potato buyers.

Potatoes are being grown all over the country which makes the top state potato producers in the US: Idaho, Oregon, North Dakota, and California. This makes the U.S the fifth largest producer of potatoes in the world behind Russia, China, Ukraine, and India.

Knowing that the product is popular in the market it’s causing major issues that the U.S might miss out on the income next year. The U.S department Of Agriculture is estimating that domestic output will drop 6.1% this year, its lowest year since 2010.

Although there is no sudden drop in prices for American fast food franchises, given from Rabo AgriFinance, “They don’t want to change the menu board unless they absolutely have to.” In other words, the price of fries won’t be impacted as of now due to the sudden drop of crop production but could, if the shortage continues. Twenty five percent of the crops were affected in the shortage, but that won’t affect global scale markets.

In short, fries will not be delayed at your local McDonalds, so go out and get a head start this New Year’s with your annual stomach baggage of 30 pounds worth of fries.