Missouri

Missouri has a long history of potato production, although the crop is now much smaller than it was during the state’s peak years. Potatoes are grown for fresh market use as well as processing, with production benefiting from Missouri’s varied soils, fertile agricultural areas and access to major Midwestern and Southern markets. The state’s potato growing conditions vary considerably, and growers must manage temperature, soil moisture and disease pressure carefully because potatoes perform best under relatively cool conditions.

Commercial production is distributed across different parts of Missouri, with southeastern areas playing an important role in modern production. Charleston in southeastern Missouri is particularly associated with commercial potato farming. Black Gold Farms began growing potatoes there in 1986 and the area has developed a role in supplying potatoes for processing, including potatoes used for potato chips. Missouri’s proximity to large consumer markets and transportation networks gives producers an advantage in moving fresh and processing potatoes to buyers.

Missouri’s potato industry is relatively modest compared with major U.S. potato producing states, but production remains commercially significant. State agricultural data show that potato production increased during much of the period from 1995 to 2016, reaching 2.41 million hundredweight in 2016, while average yields reached about 305 hundredweight per acre in 2015 and 2016. Weather remains an important production factor; flooding and excessive moisture have contributed to lower production years in some parts of the state.

Potatoes have been grown in Missouri for well over a century. USDA historical records extend Missouri potato production data back to 1866, showing that the crop once had a considerably larger role in the state's agriculture. Missouri planted approximately 93,915 acres of potatoes in 1899 and production reached its historical peak in 1902 at about 5.98 million hundredweight. During the late nineteenth century, Missouri accounted for as much as about 3.5% of U.S. potato production.

The state's share of national potato production subsequently declined as production became increasingly concentrated in specialized potato growing regions of the United States. Nevertheless, Missouri retained a commercial potato industry, with production adapting toward modern fresh market and processing opportunities. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, improved yields helped maintain production despite a much smaller acreage base. The establishment of commercial potato operations such as Black Gold Farms in Charleston in 1986 also illustrates the continuing development of processing-oriented potato production in the state.