Motivated by the high prices recorded in the previous season, the acreage devoted to potatoes in Western Europe and some countries in Central and Eastern Europe has increased. In the EU as a whole, the potato acreage in 2016 amounted to 1.68 million hectares and was about 2 percent greater than in the previous year, as revealed in the IAFE report.
Potato yields have declined in Western Europe, while a significant increase has been recorded in Central European countries. Potato harvests in the EU-28 increased by almost 6 percent in comparison with 2015 and amounted to 56.2 million tonnes, mainly due to significantly higher yields in Poland (2.5 million tonnes). The five countries with a decisive impact on the European potato market (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK) recorded a drop in the potato harvest of approximately 1 percent compared to the previous year and of 3 percent compared to the five-year average.
In Germany, the potato harvest amounted to almost 10.2 million tonnes and was almost 2 percent lower than in the previous year. In France, the harvest fell by approximately 2 percent and stood at 6.86 million tonnes, while in the Netherlands it dropped by 0.5 percent, down to 6.62 million tonnes. In the UK, the potato production amounted to 5.64 million tonnes and was 0.7 percent higher than the year before, and in Belgium it stood at 3.80 million tonnes and was 3.7 percent greater.
The main consequence of the reduction in the harvest volume has been the rise in potato prices in Western Europe.
Source: portalspozywczy.pl
