The shortage of tubers in Europe's main production basins, caused by the abnormal spring weather pattern, generated a significant increase in prices on pallets in June, thus bringing potatoes to price increases along with onions.
However, some operators in the sector have no complaints on the 2023 campaign. In addition to increasing producer prices, yields have in fact been extraordinary. "It was a really satisfying June on the economic front, it would not be honest to say otherwise," says Francesco Attolico, an Apulian producer with 40 hectares dedicated to potatoes. The yields in the field even exceeded 45 tons/hectare compared to the meager 30-35 of last year. We believed that the heavy rains of the past months could cause us serious problems, as happened in other Italian areas; instead, excellent production and quality added up with very satisfactory quotations."
Harvesting operations
In June, prices were over twice as high as in the previous 12 months. "We thought that prices would go down by the day, but that was never the case. Harvesting was accelerated, with work teams scaling up, because a change in trends was expected. People were loading goods into bins with prices of €0.65-0.80/kg, compared to €0.30-0.40/kg in 2022. I hope to see a season like the current one again as soon as possible, so as to encourage new and historic producers to do better and better."
The Apulian potato grower completed the harvest and sold the entire production a few days ago. Now the quotations are gradually dropping, but still remain above those of 2022.
