Potato Prices Soar in Eastern Europe

Prices of some vegetables, especially potatoes, in the Czech Republic have been increasing dramatically due to a significant drop in production, a new report from the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service has revealed.

According to the information, consumers are paying over 67% more for potatoes, and almost 25% more for vegetables (including lettuce, peas, cucumbers, etc). Right now, some imported tropical fruits are cheaper than locally produced potatoes. The main culprit is said to be an 18% drop in production compared to last year’s harvest.

Potatoes, a staple foodstuff in the Czech Republic, saw a harvest which totaled at 583,560MT in 2018, which is 15.3% lower than a year before. The hot and dry weather conditions are the main drivers behind this production drop. Drought is becoming a new and important issue for Czech farmers. Similar conditions affected the vegetable harvest across Europe, therefore cheaper imported vegetables were not available. Locally grown potatoes cover approximately 80% of domestic consumption, according to the Situation and Outlook Report published by the Czech Ministry of Agriculture.

Agricultural producer prices in February were reportedly higher by 8.2% year on year, while vegetable producer prices grew by 79.3% and prices for potatoes were up 55.2%.

Poor weather conditions also affected other Eastern European countries in similar fashion. For example, in Romania the price of potatoes in 2018 grew by as much as 40%, said a report from Observator.tv which cited data from the National Institute of Statistics.

According to Agerpres, since the beginning of 2019, potato prices continued to rise by 9.98% in February compared to January and 21% compared to December 2018. This was due to low internal production, as well as high prices of import potatoes.