Slight increase for potato acreage

NEPG (North-Western European Potato Growers) estimates that the area devoted to ware potatoes has increased by 0.5% compared to last year.

 

 

 

According to the NEPG estimate, at the beginning of July, the areas devoted to ware potatoes for the 2020 campaign totaled 621,148 hectares. This represents an increase of 0.5% compared to the 618,023 hectares in 2019.

 

 

 

In the current context, this total area is too large. The COVID-19 crisis came when growers had already ordered their seed potatoes and rented the land, so too late to consider reducing acreage.

 

 

 

According to NEPG data, the areas are 97,947 hectares (+ 0.9%) for Belgium, 189,700 hectares (+ 2%) for Germany, 154,900 hectares (+ 1.4%) for France , 77,000 hectares (-2.4%) for the Netherlands and 101,601 hectares (-1.6%) for Great Britain.

 

 

 

The NEPG stresses that it is always the yield and not the area which makes the volume of the harvest to come and that it is therefore still too early to estimate the production. The NEPG will provide a first estimate of the harvest in early September.