Spain: Drought and low prices reduce potato area 20%
According to Jesús Carrión, who is responsible for the potato sector in the Agro-food Cooperatives, predictions for this year place the total cultivation area in Spain to be around 60,000 hectares, against the 78,787 given over to potato cultivation last year.
Even if they still don't have calculations on the final result of this area reduction, Carrión's estimations predict that harvest could be under the 2 million tons, against the 2.36 million produced last year. As for Castilla y León, the largest producing region of Spain, from the almost 23,400 hectares harvested last year, they could now be down to 20,000 hectares, due to low water availability. This way, the potato production in the Community can suffer a drop, from the 1.34 million tons from last year, to 800,000 tons in 2012.
Carrión said that the sector is also suffering from a "disastrous year regarding prices", as potato quotation for producers didn't rise higher than 0.8Euro in the last months. He pointed out that, since last December, big distribution is being supplied by potatoes of French origin, so the national production is placed in markets or small shops. This situation led to a surplus in offer in Spain that, according to Carrión, "is the reason for a surplus of potato and why we are going to throw away the same amount that we are importing".
Source: Prensa ARAGA