North Dakota potato stocks down 22 percent from a year ago

FARGO, N.D. (AP) - Potato stocks in North Dakota are down 22 percent from a year ago.

The Agriculture Department says in its latest report that growers, dealers and processors in the state held 15.3 million hundredweight of potatoes in storage on Dec. 1, down from 19.5 million a year ago.

Current stocks represent 77 percent of production.

Nationally, potato stocks on Dec. 1 stood at 269 million hundredweight, up about 2 percent over the year.