Poor crops of potatoes

This year's crop of potatoes will be lower than last year and even lower than average crops in years 2001-2005.

The Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS) assessed crops of potatoes in 2008 at 10,4 million ton while in years 2001-2005 average crops were 14.6 million ton, and last year 11.8 million ton. There are a lot of reasons of such situation. The area of potatoes cultivation was smaller by about 3.6% than in 2007. The weather were also unfavourable. There was too little rain in the end of May and in June what delayed the growth of potatoes. Low temperatures and rain which were in the end of the summer also had the adverse influence on potatoes. The last reason is the fact that this year fertilizers and crop protection chemicals became more expensive what resulted in limited applying on fields.

However prices of potatoes at the beginning of the autumn are staying at the low, stable level. On Wednesday, October 1st the wholesale price of potatoes for export was about 0.13 EUR/kg.

Source: fresh-market.pl (ms)