World Potato Production Hits Standstill

The increase in world potato production stalled in 2018 and failed to recover significantly in 2019. World output dropped by 1.5% to 368.247 million tons in 2018 figures just released by the UN Food & Agriculture Organization. However, that was still the third highest total ever after 2017 and 2014.

There was a major adjustment in the area figures in 2018, which affected production figures as well. The UN FAO revised their previous estimate of the 158 countries it had figures for from 19.099 million hectares to 17.580 million hectares, which is a 7.9% reduction.

The biggest adjustments were in the Chinese and Russian areas. The new figures estimate that 4.813 million hectares of potatoes were grown in China in 2018, down 1.0% on 2017 and delivering 90.321 million tons of crop.

Meanwhile, according to the new estimates, Ukraine overtook neighbor Russia as the world’s third-largest grower of potatoes, after India in second place. Russia grew 22.395 million tons of potatoes in 2018, according to UN FAO, from 1.313 million hectares. The UN FAO also upgraded the French area by about 25 000 hectares and increased estimated Canadian production.

Using the new figures, average yields slipped 1.2% in 2018. Much of this was due to a big drop in yields in EU countries as a result of the 2018 European drought. The only continent to see an increase in potato plantings in 2018 was Africa – up 3.3% to 1.904 million hectares. The continent could overtake North America in 2019 or 2020 as the third largest producer of potatoes.

More than half the world’s potatoes were grown in Asia in 2018, while Europe accounted for nearly 30% of total production. Using historical data and knowledge of the 2019 harvest, there is likely to be a small reduction in global plantings – maybe less than 10 000 hectares, while better yields in Europe could result in an increase in production of around five million tons, which would be similar to the record output in 2017.