USA: Wisconsin Potato Growers Target Retail Value After 29.1 Million cwt Crop
Wisconsin, the third-largest US potato state, is pushing smaller packs, specialty varieties and its Healthy Grown label to earn more from fresh potato sales.
Wisconsin’s potato industry is working to raise the value of its potatoes in supermarkets, Produce Business reported on 21 September. The strategy focuses on year-round supply, a wide range of varieties, smaller packs and the state’s sustainability label, Wisconsin Healthy Grown.
Wisconsin is the third-largest potato state in the United States, after Idaho and Washington. The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) puts the state’s 2025 crop at 29.145 million hundredweight (cwt), up from 26.4 million cwt in 2024. That is about 1.32 million tonnes (our calculation). Growers planted 68,000 acres, harvested 67,000 acres and averaged 435 cwt per acre. The crop was worth US$466.3 million. National production in 2025 was 418 million cwt, down 1% from 2024.
According to Produce Business, 63% of Wisconsin’s crop goes to processing and 37% to the fresh table-stock market. The Wisconsin Potato & Vegetable Growers Association (WPVGA), which has more than 300 members, points to the state’s loose, sandy soils as an advantage for potato production.
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Small packs and a sustainability label
Shippers told the magazine that retailers want more choice. Okray Family Farms sees demand for value-added formats such as four-pack trays and individually wrapped potatoes. The state grows russets such as Burbank, Goldrush, Silverton and Norkotah, reds such as Red Norland and Dark Red Norland, and yellows such as Yukon Gold, Oneida Gold and Colomba.
Alsum Farms & Produce ran a pilot with Trig’s, a Wisconsin grocery chain with four stores. It was the first major retailer promotion of the Wisconsin Healthy Grown label since the programme began, the magazine reports. Trig’s will now carry Healthy Grown potatoes from August 2026 to February 2027. Alsum Farms also points to the state’s logistics, which allow a quicker response to orders and faster delivery.
Vince Mastromauro, director of produce operations at the retailer Sunset Foods, told Produce Business that potatoes have become a more important category in the five years since the pandemic.
Why it matters
Most of Wisconsin’s crop is sold to processors, so the fresh market is the smaller channel. Growers and shippers see differentiated packs, specialty varieties and a sustainability label as ways to add value to that part of the crop, instead of competing only on the price of bulk russets.
The retail programme is still small. The Healthy Grown pilot involved one chain with four stores, and results in terms of sales or prices have not been published. The Trig’s season, which runs until February 2027, will show whether the label can support wider use in US supermarkets.
Photo: Hilling potatoes in Adams County, Wisconsin (illustrative). Royalbroil / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
