Friehe Farms in Washington’s Upper Columbia River Basin combines teamwork and advanced technology to produce high-quality russet potatoes. Drones, GPS-guided planting, and climate-controlled storage enhance efficiency, while traditional four-year crop rotation helps maintain soil health.

The success of the potato industry is built on growers’ ability to introduce new potato varieties that meet market demands. For example, when snack-size bags of potato chips were popularized, the industry responded by breeding smaller potatoes for smaller chips to fit into the bags.

USA retail sales of potatoes remained strong from January–December 2024, as volume sales increased 3.1%, and dollar sales rose 0.7% to $18.2 billion. All categories of potatoes increased in volume sales.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced the appointment of 11 members to Potatoes USA’s Board of Directors. The appointees include nine producer members and one public member, who will serve three-year terms that expire Feb. 28, 2028.

Did you know that behind every delicious, crunchy, perfectly sized potato chip are years of research, development, experimentation and analysis by some of the brightest minds in the industry?

Agronomist, plant breeder, farmer. writer, philanthropist, mentor, potato ambassador, leader, Dr. Charles Higgins has been doing all those things for the better part of the past 50 years.

When Juan Martinez was in high school, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do in life, but he knew he liked working with his dad on their farm.

When Alison Sklarczyk earned her animal sciences degree from Michigan State University, she didn’t intend to go into potato farming.

Kathy Sponheim, a fourth-generation potato farmer, grew up around vegetables and found a passion for agriculture at an early age. When she was young, her dad said that she had to work somewhere else for at least two years before she could work on the family farm.