Every German citizen consumed a total of 59.4 kilograms of potatoes in the 2020/21 financial year - two kilograms more than in the previous year. At the same time, per capita consumption of potato products, such as French fries, potato salad or potato chips, fell by 400 grams. Consumption of fresh table potatoes, on the other hand, increased by around three kilograms per person and, according to preliminary data from the Federal Agricultural Information Center (BZL), stands at 24.2 kilograms.
This continues the trend of the past two years. The main reasons are the Corona-related restrictions on out-of-home consumption and increased meal preparation in private households.
As in previous years, domestic demand for potatoes was met from domestic production. Self-sufficiency in 2020/2021 was 145 percent.
Corona influences consumption
Because there were Corona-related sales problems for potatoes that are processed into French fries, some of these were processed in starch factories or fed to livestock. This is easily reflected in the use of potatoes in the 2020/21 marketing year: about 68 percent of potatoes used domestically were used for food consumption (2019/20: 70 percent), 14 percent were used in industrial utilization (starch) (2019/20: 13 percent), eight percent as seed potatoes (2019/20: 9 percent), and four percent as feed (2019/20: 3 percent); losses were about six percent (2019/20: 5 percent).
Cultivation area smaller again for the first time in 2021
The potato cultivation area in 2021 was 258,300 hectares - around six percent below the previous year. This was the first time since 2016 that the cultivation area did not expand continuously. The preliminary harvest volume fell by a good nine percent and amounts to 10.6 million tons of potatoes for 2021.
The 2021/2022 supply balance, which covers the period from July 2021 to June 2022, will show the use of the 2021 potato crop.