Potato shortage to reverse rise in EU exports

A shortage of potatoes is to prompt a drop in European Union exports of the tuber this year, with poor weather more than wiping out the benefit of higher plantings in many countries.

A bumper period for exports in 2009-10, when European Union shipments of frozen potato products outside the region soared more than 40% to 636,600 tonnes, is to be followed by a season of decline, US Department of Agriculture staff from across Europe said in a report.
 

READ: USDA GAIN/FAS Report EU-27 Potatoes and Potato Products Annual;Annual Market and Competitor Report

While failing short of estimating the drop, the briefing highlighted lower crops in many major producing countries, including Poland, where "long period of unfavourable weather", including persistent rains, cut output of edible potatoes by 8% to 8.5m tonnes.

In Germany, which suffered a combination of a dry spring followed by a wet summer and early autumn, delaying the potato harvest as it did the grains harvest, the "inferior"conditions have cut production of food crop by 18% to 6.0m tonnes, the lowest for at least four years.

France recorded a similar record, after a "cold spring combined with a lack of moisture during the growing season, May to July, followed by excessive rain during the harvest", cut output by 10% to 4.69m tonnes, on a food basis.