Demand for potatoes drops again

"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 kg of potatoes, which is about 3 kg less than in 2014. In 2013, consumption amounted to 102 kg per capita, and yet in 2008 it stood at 118 kg.

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 in the wholesale markets reached 42 cents per kg, compared to 95 cents per kg a year earlier," tells Mariusz Dziwulski, an economist at Bank BGZ.

Looking at the same period of the last five years, potatoes were only cheaper in 2012, when a kg in the wholesale cost 35 cents.

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.