Big Regional Differences for the 2022 EU&UK Potato Production

Across Europe, the potato demand for the 2022 winter holidays period improved, the latest IFA report shows.

According to the release, the potato export demand was reported to be reduced during the run-up to the holiday period although exporters in The Netherlands reported a more positive tone and particularly in the Mediterranean countries with the odd price increase.

During the last NEPG meeting on November 9, 2022, experts' estimates showed that the global potato production in 2022 in the NEPG zone (EU-04) is down by 6% compared to last year. Rains in September helped a good deal of the potato fields to make additional tons late in September - beginning of October. NEPG’s production was seen as higher than expected, with big regional differences, and with zones in the North of The Netherlands with very good yields (due to more rainfall, and also widespread irrigation). In zones of West and North of Germany, yields were mainly on average. Zones in some parts of Belgium had very disappointing yields.

The year 2022 has been marked by an unprecedented summer weather shock (heat extremes and drought), which has had a very strong impact on the French spud production in all the main production areas, despite a slight increase in storage potato areas (+0.2% compared to 2021), bringing the national seeded area to 154,202 hectares.

The 2022 national gross yield is 39.2 tonnes per hectare according to the survey conducted through the panel of producers of the National Union of Potato Producers (UNPT) and the consolidation of Agreste data for the basins not surveyed. This figure confirms the projections made by the UNPT in August 2022 to the public authorities.

“This average return is thus the lowest recorded for 27 years. You have to go back to the 1995-1996 campaign and its national average yield of 38.2 tonnes/ha to reach such levels!” the latest UNPT press release shows.

The result of this challenging effort is the drastic fall in French ware potato production, which fell by 12.2% this year to 6,047,871 tonnes from 6,888,723 tonnes in 2021.

You can read the rest of this article in your complimentary e-copy of Issue 1 of Potato Business Digital 2023 magazine, which you can access by clicking here.