A French Fry Shortage May Be Coming to the U.S. After Poor Potato Growing Season

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Soon you might not be able to get a side of fries with that.

Potato crops struggled to grow this season due to excessive cold and wet weather across the U.S. and Canada, resulting in a potentialfrench fryshortage in the near future.

Idaho, the top potato producer in the US, had an estimated production fall of 5.5%, while other states had even more monumental drops. North Dakota experienced an 11.8% drop in spud harvests while Oregon had a 16% drop.

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“French fry demand has just been outstanding lately, and so supplies can’t meet demand,” Travis Blacker, an industry-relations director with the Idaho Potato Commission toldBloomberg.

Thepotatoesthat did manage to survive the bad weather were significantly smaller, which is problematic for french fries specifically because chefs tend to go with longer spuds to create the popular crispy matchsticks.

Thankfully, there’s no shortage of sweet potatoes this year, so looks likesweet potato friesmay be the move for 2020.

source: people.com