Increased Interest of European Importers in Egyptian Potatoes

Egyptian potato exports to the European Union’s (EU) market are anticipated to reach at least a three-year high in 2023. The declining potato production in the EU and Egypt's economic situation were both factors in the increased interest of European importers in Egyptian produce.

“At the beginning of the current year, it had been already obvious that Egypt would increase its fruit and vegetable exports under conditions of a devaluating pound, which made its produce more price attractive in the foreign markets,” according to a recent EastFruit analysis.

In the first four months of the current year, Egypt has already exported 232,587 tons of potatoes to the EU. This number is the highest since 2021 and virtually on par with 2020, thanks to stronger shipments to the EU between January through April of 2019 (253,531 tons).

“Considering the seasonality of Egyptian potato exports to the EU market, the final results of the current year can be calculated after the arrival of May data, as exports fall almost to zero since the beginning of summer. Nevertheless, the current dynamics of the Egyptian exports show that they would at least reach the 2020 results,” the experts added.

The EU potato season 2022-2023 was marked by catastrophic aftermaths of the summer drought, which provoked potato shortage and price growth. For example, Polish potato market players had already reported a serious rise in prices in autumn last year, and by the end of spring 2023, they were the highest since 2019.

The EU is one of the biggest importers of potatoes in the world with annual imports from non-EU countries ranging from 308,647 tons to 418,878 tons. In 2019, imports reached their historic high of 529,109 tons.

Nevertheless, imports from non-EU countries are limited to spring and the beginning of summer. During this period, importers focus on the countries, which start harvesting new crop of potatoes. Egypt and Israel altogether account for 88-96% of the total imports from non-EU countries.

Egypt should also be mentioned as an unchangeable leader in the list of exporters to the EU. Last year, Israel’s exports to the EU reached their record high of 154,323 tons but still were much lower than Egyptian ones.

Potato imports from other countries are even more insignificant. In 2022, the EU imported 12,125 tons of potatoes from Morocco, 8,598 tons – from Switzerland, and 1,873 tons from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Total shipments from other countries were lower than 1,100 tons.