Potato area in north west Europe -2.5%

As had been speculated for a while in the media, the north west European potato area is estimated to decrease by 2.5% to 530,000 hectares in the coming season. During the NEPG talk last week the representatives of all 5 NEPG countries indicated they expected a decrease in area. For Great Britain it was just slightly too early to estimate. This is why the NEPG assumed the area of the past season for this country.

Based on the 5 year average of 47.2 tonnes per hectare the total harvest should be 25.2 million tonnes, 11.6% less than in the previous year. Due to this potential production there is the risk that acceptable prices cannot be guaranteed for growers. The NEPG emphasises that the eventual harvest can have more effect on the total production than the area. The planting is slightly behind schedule.

In all countries there is a movement from traditional varieties to varieties specifically for processing with a potentially higher yield.

For more information:
NPEG
Jan de Lange (mobile: +31 6 518 204 48)
Victor Pfaff secretary (mobile: +31 321 38 79 33).