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Inside Potatoes

German potato area gets a correction after all

11 August 2020 - Niels van der Boom - 1 reaction

As in 2019, a significant area increase in Germany was initially expected for the 2020 harvest. New figures from the Destatis statistics office, however, show that this figure will be corrected afterwards.

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A survey among growers – conducted in mid-May – orphan initially on a potato area (consumption plus starch) of 277.000 hectares in our eastern neighbors. A significant increase of 2%, good for 5.300 hectares, compared to the previous year. There were doubts about the figures, especially at the level of the individual states. This also happened in 2019, when a very high area was also described.

Not 2% but 1,2%
Destatis has not yet released figures per state, but it has released a new estimate for the German total. That now amounts to 274.900 hectares. A decrease of 2.100 hectares compared to the first estimate. A year earlier, 271.600 hectares of potatoes were grown in the country, according to the statistics service. This means that potato cultivation will gain 1,2%. So there is certainly no question of shrinkage. That much was already clear.

In its latest estimate, NEPG still takes into account a 2% increase in area for 2020. They assume 189.700 hectares of ware potatoes. Destatis does not publish separate figures for starch and ware potatoes. It is known that more table potatoes were planted this year, because potato growers had little confidence in the chip market at the start of the season.

Average harvest
If the area does indeed increase by 2% rather than 1,2%, this means a consumption area of ​​188.232 hectares. The 5-year average yield is 42,64 tons per hectare. This means a total yield of 8 million tons of potatoes. That is 4% more than the 5-year average of 7,68 million tons. However, if the hectare yield reaches the 2019 level (40,8 tons per hectare), we are talking about 7,67 million tons of potatoes. In 2018, the yield was much lower at 35,4 tons per hectare, after the record year 2017 with an average of 50 tons per hectare.

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