The United States Department of Agriculture is to pay russet potato growers up to $10.25m to divert a proportion of their 2000 crop to charitable food institutions, livestock feed and ethanol production. This follows a record US harvest of 500 million hundredweight, as a result of favourable weather, which has caused producer prices to plummet. This situation has been compounded by a rise in planted area, and large crops in Canada and Europe reducing export opportunities.