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Potatoes are not a globally listed and traded commodity like e.g. sugar, vegetable oils and grains. The reason can be found in factors such as phytosanitary limitations, potential for spoilage and quality degradation during transport as well as the fact that potatoes are heavy and bulky.

In fact, potato processing factories go out of their way to source potatoes for processing close to the factory to limit transportation costs.
 

On the other hand, seed potatoes and some potato products with long shelf life (such as frozen french fries, dehydrated potato products such as potato flakes and potato starch) are transported all over the world.
 

Potato products with a short shelf life (e.g.peeled potatoes and chilled french fried) are typically not transported over long distances. The same is true for potato chips, because of their large volume and because of the risk of breakage.

But one final rule supersedes everything else:

Where there is an opportunity, there is trade...!
 

Trade: Hot Topics

There are a number of Hot Topics where it comes to the trade of potatoes and potato products that are going on for such a long time that we have given them their own section: