News Potatoes
Potato yield in Cuba historically low
The potato harvest in Cuba this year threatens to be one of the lowest in more than thirty years. The cultivation was plagued by bad weather during the growing season and it is still not possible to harvest everywhere. The acreage in the country has also been shrinking for years.
Total production is estimated at 93.650 tons of potatoes, according to figures from the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture. That is the lowest yield in more than thirty years, except for the 2014 horror season when only 53.308 tons were harvested. In terms of acreage, the yield at the beginning of this season was estimated at approximately 121.000 tons of potatoes.
However, this volume was quickly adjusted downwards by the ministry due to bad weather conditions. There is a lot of loss through rot and there is still a portion that has yet to be harvested, which is left over. The regions where potatoes are grown in particular were hit hard by the poor weather conditions.
More homegrown seed potatoes
In the years before the 2014 disaster season, Cuba exported more potatoes. Since then, the acreage and potato production have been declining for years and the import of the product has increased. The country's potato consumption in 2019 was already more than 151.600 tons of potatoes. This caused a shortage last February, which doubled the price of potatoes. Also in 2020 a very low yield of 97.354 tons was achieved. According to the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture, to scale up production, more own seed must be grown, in order to reduce the high costs of seed from abroad. This should bring the total costs of potato cultivation down.
Most seed potato growers in the Netherlands have delivered to Cuba at some point, with the export being characterized as very early. The country has been purchasing a serious amount for years and was also good for 11.690 tons of seed potatoes this year. Cuba thus fills in more than 50% of the total export volume of seed potatoes that is exported to America.
Jesse Torringa
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