Current UCUI
68/100
Moderate-High Uncertainty
+4 points from prior reading
Potato Market Intelligence
Potato Irrigation Water Risk
Potato irrigation water risk measures whether the quantity, timing, reliability, or cost of irrigation can constrain crop production. MassGain connects water-system exposure with acreage, crop progress, contracts, yield history, and regional potato markets for sourcing and credit scenarios.
Market Data
How to read this market
Potato irrigation water risk is the exposure created when the quantity, timing, reliability, or cost of irrigation water may constrain potato production. Relevant factors include source, allocation, reservoir or groundwater status, delivery rights, pumping capacity, crop stage, acreage, and regional concentration.
MassGain can connect water availability with crop progress, historical yield, production costs, contract acreage, and regional prices. Growers, processors, and lenders can use the data to identify which acres and delivery windows are sensitive rather than treating broad drought conditions as uniform irrigation risk.
Data Module
Irrigation water-risk context
Sourcesurface water, groundwater, or mixed system
Allocationexpected quantity and delivery timing
Crop stageperiods most sensitive to shortage
Acreageproduction dependent on the water source
Costpumping and delivery expense
Decision usecrop, credit, and sourcing scenarios
Analysis
Why this matters
Water risk is about access, not rainfall alone. Two growers under the same weather can face very different outcomes because one has secure allocation and another depends on restricted groundwater or junior surface rights.
The commercial consequence also depends on shared exposure. When many contracted acres depend on the same water system, a local allocation problem can become a processor-level supply issue. MassGain helps reveal that correlation.
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 10, 2026Latest MassGain publication
Potato prices quiet at $30/cwt as regional harvest damage buzzes beneath the surface
Market indicators are stable, but reporting from Europe and select growing areas shows real, localized crop stress — a reminder that steady headline prices can mask uneven physical risk.
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 is for agricultural lenders, insurers, processors, growers, and enterprise risk teams that need to understand how water availability, allocation rules, and irrigation dependence affect potato production and financial resilience. Potato irrigation water risk includes reduced surface-water deliveries, pumping restrictions, drought allocations, competing users, higher water costs, infrastructure failure, and uncertainty around the timing of supply. Exposure varies by basin, crop stage, irrigation system, soil, variety, and contract obligations.
MassGain’s potato data suite connects water conditions with planted acreage, crop progress, historical yield, quality, production cost, regional prices, and processor coverage. This helps users distinguish a manageable cost increase from a supply constraint capable of reducing marketable production or forcing acreage changes. It can also reveal hidden concentration when several growers and plants rely on the same reservoir, canal district, or groundwater system.
The analysis supports underwriting, crop-insurance review, procurement continuity, and regional stress testing. MassGain does not determine water rights, forecast individual farm deliveries, or replace agronomic and hydrologic expertise. It provides the external market framework needed to translate credible water evidence into scenarios for lower yield, higher operating cost, delayed production, tighter supply, and changes in borrower liquidity or processor replacement exposure.
Use Case
A processor sources most of one plant’s potatoes from an irrigation district facing reduced allocations during tuber bulking. MassGain maps the affected acreage, contract coverage, and regional replacement options. Procurement reserves volume from a second basin, while the lender asks exposed growers for updated water, insurance, and crop reports and models a lower marketable-yield case.
FAQs
What creates potato irrigation water risk?
Allocation cuts, drought, pumping limits, infrastructure failure, higher costs, and dependence on one water system can all matter.
Why is crop stage important?
Water shortages during establishment, tuber initiation, or bulking can have different yield and quality effects.
How does MassGain support water-risk analysis?
It links regional water conditions with acreage, crop progress, yield, contracts, prices, and alternate supply.
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.