In 2014, Poland registered the first increase in potato consumption in six years. This year, however, demand has once again entered a downward trend.
"Last year, a big drop in retail prices and an improvement in quality led to an increase in potato consumption, something which we had not seen since 2008," highlights Krystyna Świetlik, of the Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics (IAFE).
The recovery, however, was only temporary. The IAFE predicts that in 2015 the average Pole will eat 100 kilos of potatoes, which is about 3 kilos less than in 2014. In 2013, consumption amounted to 102 kilos per capita, and yet in 2008 it stood at 118 kilos.
This trend has continued despite the fact that potatoes are currently still cheap. "At the start of the third week of April 2015, potato prices at Bronisze wholesale market reached 0.42 zloty per kilo (0.10 Euro), compared to 0.95 zloty (0.23 Euro) per kilo a year earlier," tells Mariusz Dziwulski, an economist at Bank BGZ. Meanwhile, Marek Słowiński, of fresh-market.pl, affirms that prices in big wholesale trade are 3 - 5 PLN per 15 kg (20 - 33 grosdze per kg/ 0.05 - 0.08 Euro per kg).
Looking at the same period of the last five years, potatoes were only cheaper in 2012, when a kilo in Bronisze wholesale cost 0.35 zloty.
The CSO says that, last year, Poland's potato harvest increased by 8.1%, To 7.7 million tonnes. In 2015, however, low potato prices may discourage growers to expand the acreage, predicts Dziwulski.
Source: ekonomia.rp.pl
