Current UCUI
68/100
Moderate-High Uncertainty
+4 points from prior reading
Potato Market Intelligence
Qsr French Fry Margin Analysis
QSR french fry margin analysis connects item revenue with frozen-product cost, oil, packaging, labor, waste, distributor fees, rebates, and portioning. Restaurant teams can identify whether margin pressure comes from procurement, operations, pricing, promotion mix, or channel costs.
Market Data
How to read this market
QSR french-fry-margin data combines menu revenue with frozen product cost, oil, packaging, labor, waste, distributor fees, rebates, and portion usage under a defined margin basis. The market object is fry economics by item, size, store, market, bundle, and channel.
Use the data to isolate whether margin pressure comes from supplier pricing, operations, portioning, promotion mix, or channel costs. Compare percentage margin with contribution dollars.
Data Module
QSR French Fry Margin Analysis
Market objectrestaurant fry economics
Primary measuresmargin and contribution
Key dimensionsitem, size, store, channel
Commercial usemargin-driver analysis
Cost contextfrozen product, oil, packaging, labor, waste
Compare withmenu price and portion usage
Analysis
Why this matters
A menu-price increase can fail to restore margin if overportioning, oil, packaging, or distributor fees rise at the same time. Raw-potato or frozen-fry cost may be only one part of the variance.
Commercial interpretation should bridge each cost and revenue driver before assigning margin pressure to procurement.
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 QSR and restaurant procurement, finance, operations, and menu teams that need a QSR french fry margin analysis. Fry margin depends on menu revenue, portion size, waste, oil, packaging, labor, distributor cost, rebates, and the purchase price of frozen product. MassGain helps users connect those restaurant-level economics with processor and raw-potato market movements.
The suite can calculate gross or contribution margin by item, size, bundle, store, market, and channel under a documented cost definition. Procurement can isolate whether margin pressure originates with processor pricing, distribution, oil, or packaging. Operations can quantify overportioning and waste. Menu teams can compare standalone and bundled economics. Finance can test how traffic and elasticity respond to price or portion changes.
A high percentage margin does not always mean the item creates the most dollars, and bundle allocations can obscure true performance. MassGain does not prescribe menu prices or accounting treatment. It provides a transparent enterprise framework that links menu sales, operational usage, contracts, supplier invoices, and physical potato markets so teams can protect margin without misattributing every change to raw potatoes.
Use Case
A QSR chain sees fry margin fall two points despite a menu-price increase. MassGain separates processor cost, distributor fees, oil, packaging, portion weight, and promotion mix and finds overportioning and lower bundle allocation explain most of the decline. Operations corrects serving control while procurement addresses a smaller unsupported fee.
FAQs
What belongs in a QSR fry margin analysis?
Menu revenue, frozen product, oil, packaging, labor, waste, distribution, rebates, and portion usage may belong.
Why analyze margin by item and channel?
Sizes, bundles, delivery fees, promotions, and customer behavior create different economics.
How does MassGain identify the driver?
It links menu sales, portions, operations, invoices, contracts, processor prices, and potato benchmarks.
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.