Canadian Potato Production 2010 down 4% (Statistics Canada update)

Canada's potato production continued its downward slide in 2010, but Prince Edward Island's acreage showed a slight increase last year, data from Statistics Canada reveals.

Canada's potato acreage dropped from 369,900 acres in 2009 to 356,700 last year. In P.E.I., potato acreage was 85,000 in 2009 and 85,500 last year.

Prince Edward Island and Canadian production has been on a steady decline since 2002 and 2003.

"In the last few years there's been a real attempt at the North American level for the potato producers to try and cut their acreage back so that the production would actually meet the demand, and try to encourage better prices,"said Barbara McLaughlin, an official with Stats Canada's agriculture division.

While acreage has been tailing off, yield has been going up - 282.8 hundredweight per acre for Canada in 2010, compared with 277.3 in 2008. P.E.I.'s average yield has gone up from 280 cwt/acre in 2008 to 300 cwt in 2009 and 2010.

Statistics Canada: Canadian Potato Production, published January 21, 2011 (pdf)  Includes some revised numbers