Current UCUI
68/100
Moderate-High Uncertainty
+4 points from prior reading
Potato Market Intelligence
Potato Demurrage Costs
Potato demurrage costs track chargeable terminal or equipment time after contracted free days expire. Procurement and logistics teams can reconstruct the tariff and milestones, isolate recurring delay causes, and compare another day of charges with expedited clearance, diversion, or replacement.
Market Data
How to read this market
Potato demurrage-cost data records charges incurred when containers, vessels, rail equipment, or terminal space remain in use beyond contracted free time. The market object is the shipment charge tied to arrival, discharge, customs release, inspection, pickup, return, tariff, currency, equipment type, and responsible party.
Use the data to reconstruct chargeable days, validate invoices, and compare waiting with expedited clearance, diversion, or replacement. Separate demurrage from commodity price, freight, detention, and storage so recurring terminal or documentation problems are visible.
Data Module
Potato Demurrage Costs
Market objectterminal or equipment delay charge
Primary measureschargeable time and cost
Key dimensionsshipment, free time, tariff, terminal
Commercial uselanded-cost and delay analysis
Cost contextclearance, pickup, return milestones
Compare withexpedite, diversion, replacement
Analysis
Why this matters
Demurrage can erase an apparent import discount without any change in the underlying potato price. Charges often accelerate with time, so the economic decision can change quickly once free days expire.
Commercial interpretation should compare the marginal cost of another day with the cost of intervention. A higher-cost expedited move can be rational when it prevents compounding charges or protects perishable product value.
Signal 01
Usable Crop Uncertainty Index
UCUI translates crop and market complexity into a simple uncertainty signal. Higher readings indicate greater uncertainty—not necessarily higher prices.
Understand uncertainty. Anticipate risk. Act earlier.
UCUI is designed to analyze potato-industry publications and data signals across regions, varieties, weather, disease, storage, supply, and demand.
WeatherHigh
DiseaseHigh
StorageMedium
SupplyMedium
Single-day snapshot based on a scan of 11,500+ web and social signals. Get historical and real-time data by clicking the button below.
The MassGain Daily
Today’s market analysis.
A daily editorial synthesis of physical potato data, crop signals, market reporting, and what participants should watch next.
September 16, 2026Latest MassGain publication
Potato market steady for now; Russia’s smaller crop is the salient risk
Spot prices are flat and USDA terminal reports read ‘market steady,’ but a renewed forecast for a smaller Russian harvest and recent regional harvest stress leave seasonal import timing and storage losses as the key uncertainty.
Signal 02
MassGain Potato Index
Independent physical-pricing intelligence and market-trend analysis for procurement, forecasting, contracting, and scenario planning.
Core Russet Carton Median
312.45 USD/MT
Latest qualifying physical-market observation
+4.75 (+1.55%)
Price discovery for the physical potato market
MPI is designed to track physical pricing data, price trends, deltas, and divergences across regions and potato types.
Series window45 days
Current public coverageCore russet cartons
Primary source basisQualifying USDA physical rows
UnitUSD per metric tonne
Single-day snapshot based on most recent 45 days worth of data. Limited to US Russets only. Get more complete, global data about all varieties by clicking the button below.
Signal 03
MassGain Spot Reference
An independent spot reference designed for price discovery, contract discussions, procurement comparisons, and risk modeling.
Russet Burbank — U.S. Midsize
305 USD/MT
Demonstration reference format
+1.6% WoW · Confidence: High
A trusted benchmark for pricing, contracts, and risk
MSR is intended to use real transactions and verifiable physical-market data to support negotiations, price checks, contracting, and risk models.
ProductRusset Burbank
SpecificationU.S. midsize, 40–70 count
Reference typePhysical spot benchmark
StatusIn development
Based on most recent 45 days worth of data. Limited to US Russets only. Get more complete, global data about all varities by clicking the button below. Full access also includes historical data -- including depreciated NYMEX/CBOE/EEX spot references -- projections, trends, and AI-driven insights.
The MassGain Product Ladder
From insight to intelligence to action
Four integrated products built for the physical potato market, delivered through public pages, reports, exports, dashboards, and API access.
1
Content
Original research, commentary, aggregated news, and market updates.
- What matters right now?
- What is happening out there?
2
UCUI™
Usable Crop Uncertainty Index: an AI-powered signal of crop risk and market uncertainty.
- Understand uncertainty
- Anticipate risk
- Act earlier
3
MPI™
MassGain Potato Index: independent physical-pricing intelligence and trend analysis.
- Price discovery
- Regional trends
- Procurement planning
4
MSR™
MassGain Spot Reference: an independent benchmark for price discovery and risk modeling.
- Contracts
- Negotiations
- Risk models
Content + UCUI + MPI + MSR + API access
Get historical series, regional detail, constituent data, exports, alerts, and direct data access.
Overview
Who is this for?
This page is for procurement, logistics, finance, and market-intelligence teams that need to evaluate potato demurrage costs. Demurrage is charged when containers, vessels, rail equipment, or terminal space remain in use beyond the allowed free time. For potato imports and exports, those charges can quickly erase an apparent commodity-price advantage and may coincide with quality deterioration or service failure.
MassGain can organize free-time terms, arrival, discharge, customs release, inspection, pickup, return, daily tariff, currency, equipment type, and responsible party by shipment. Procurement can compare suppliers and Incoterms on total landed economics. Logistics can identify whether delay originates with documents, inspection, terminal congestion, trucking, customer readiness, or internal approval. Finance can accrue expected charges and challenge invoices against actual milestones. Market intelligence can distinguish a one-off operational failure from a congested trade lane.
MassGain does not interpret carrier contracts or determine legal liability. It provides a transparent event and cost framework that prevents demurrage from being buried inside broad freight variance, supports root-cause analysis, and helps users compare waiting, diversion, expedited clearance, or replacement against the true commercial value of the potatoes.
Use Case
A container of frozen fries clears customs but sits at the terminal because no truck appointment is available. MassGain applies the correct free days and daily tariff, compares expedited pickup with continued demurrage, and shows an after-hours truck is cheaper by the second day. Logistics retrieves the container before charges compound.
FAQs
What creates potato demurrage?
Charges arise when cargo or equipment remains at a terminal or facility beyond contracted free time.
Why separate demurrage from detention?
The charges can apply to different locations, equipment periods, and contractual milestones.
How does MassGain validate the charge?
It links tariffs and free time with arrival, release, pickup, return, responsibility, and supporting records.
Put this market intelligence to work
Get historical data, regional detail, benchmarks, alerts, exports, and API access tailored to your procurement
and market-analysis needs.
Data and Methodology
Professional market-data standards
MassGain is building transparent public market infrastructure. Each live metric will identify its date, unit, coverage, methodology, and source basis.
Data provenance
MassGain uses public, licensed, contributed, and independently derived physical-market information. Source availability and publication schedules vary.
Timing and revisions
Figures may reflect the latest available observation rather than a same-day transaction. Source data and MassGain calculations may be corrected, restated, or revised.
Not transactional pricing
MassGain figures are informational reference values and do not constitute executable bids, offers, settlements, or guarantees that a transaction can occur at the displayed value.
No individualized advice
Content and data are provided for informational and analytical purposes and do not constitute financial, investment, legal, trading, or individualized procurement advice.
Independent publication
Certain observations may be derived from USDA reports. MassGain is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USDA.
Commercial use and licensing
Public display does not grant rights to reproduce, redistribute, republish, or incorporate MassGain indices or references into commercial products or contracts without authorization.