Potato area drops to lowest since 1960

GB potato growers planted 119,900ha this season, a drop in area of 2.1%, according to a provisional estimate by the Potato Council.

That is the lowest area since at least 1960 and, with an average yield of 44.9t/ha, would produce a crop of 5.39m tonnes – 330,000t down on last year but 900,000t more than in 2012.

See also: More prices and trends

Plantings across the main northwestern European potato growing countries were generally up on the year, with crop development ahead of schedule, said the report.

Belgian plantings may have reached a 30-year high, with the German area potentially the largest since 2011, and French plantings up by 3.6%.

Although the EU’s own Mars crop monitoring service had lowered its EU28 yield estimate, from 32.25t/ha to 31.97t/ha – this was still above the five-year average of 30.69t/ha.

Eurex April-15 processing potato futures reached a high of €13.30/100kg on 19 June – a sharp jump from the €10.50/100kg set on 27 May. However, they have since drifted again, to €11.10 as Farmers Weekly went to press.

Domestic old crop values continued to decline, with the GB weekly average price falling by £9.64/t in the week to 27 June, to £146.05/t.