Season
Raw potatoes arrive in the autumn; finished fries ship every week of the year.
Commodity playbook
Who ships frozen fries
| Shipper | Town | County |
|---|---|---|
| Lamb Weston | Eagle, ID | Ada |
| Lamb Weston | American Falls, ID | Power |
| McCain Foods USA | Othello, WA | Adams |
| J.R. Simplot | Boise, ID | Ada |
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Head offices and named plants of three of the four companies that make nearly every US frozen fry.
Ask for the plant's logistics manager. There are two freight businesses here: raw potatoes moving from storage cellars to the plant in the autumn and through the winter, and finished frozen product moving out all year. The raw side is short, heavy and seasonal; the finished side is long-haul frozen and steady.
Where it hauls
The Columbia Basin and the Snake River Plain, overwhelmingly. Washington carries the largest processing capacity in the country, concentrated around the Basin at Othello, Connell, Warden, Pasco and Quincy. Idaho runs the Snake River complex from American Falls through Twin Falls and Burley. Oregon adds meaningful capacity around Hermiston and Boardman. Finished product runs frozen to foodservice distributors and retail nationally, and to the ports for export. The processors to know:
How to open
"Do you need capacity on the raw side this autumn, or is it the finished frozen you're short on?"
To the processors, August into SeptemberAsking about both halves separates you immediately. Most callers only know the frozen outbound exists, and the raw inbound is where a new carrier can actually get started.
Qualifying questions
- What is the setpoint? Frozen product runs at or below zero degrees and the temperature record decides any claim. Confirm the setpoint, that the unit runs continuous, and whether they want a download at delivery.
- Raw inbound or finished frozen? Raw potatoes from storage cellars to the plant are a heavy, short, seasonal haul. Finished frozen fries are long-haul reefer running all year. Two different jobs at the same site.
- What does a finished load scale? Cases of frozen fries palletize densely and load close to legal weight. Get the case count and target gross rather than assuming frozen food will cube out.
- Is the trailer pre-cooled? Loading frozen product into a warm trailer costs product temperature you cannot get back. Confirm pre-cooling expectations and how long they will hold you at the dock.
- Is any of it export? A meaningful share moves through the northwest ports to Asia, which means container drayage and a hard vessel cutoff rather than a delivery window. Ask early.
When to call
August and September, before the crop comes in and the raw haul begins. The finished-goods freight then runs every week of the year, which is the real prize: a frozen lane out of the Basin is as close to permanent as this calendar offers. Export volume through the northwest ports adds a third stream.
Sources
- Frozen potato industry reporting: Lamb Weston, McCain, Simplot and Cavendish Farms controlling 97% of US frozen french fries, with Lamb Weston at about 40% share and $3.6 billion revenue, McCain at 30%, Simplot at 20% and Cavendish at 7%; North American frozen potato plant capacity of 5.82 billion pounds in Washington and 2.4 billion in Oregon; Lamb Weston's $415 million processing line at American Falls, Idaho and McCain's Othello, Washington facility. potatopro.com
- The August to September call window and the raw-versus-finished framing. Reasoned from the harvest and continuous processing pattern rather than a plant's stated schedule.