Canada’s potato powerhouse: A $2 billion industry driving national and global markets

Potatoes are the fifth largest primary agriculture crop in Canada (after canola, wheat, soybean, and corn), contributing approximately $2 billion in farm cash receipts in 2023, according to an extensive report released by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in November 2024. The report, titled “Potato Market Information Review 2023-2024“, was prepared by the Crops and Horticulture Division, Horticulture Section of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

According to the report, the value of potatoes and potato products exports rose 8% from 2022/2023 to reach over $3.6 billion in 2023/2024. In addition, potatoes are the largest vegetable crop grown in Canada, accounting for 29% of all vegetable receipts and 17% of all horticultural receipts.

Potatoes also make a significant contribution to provincial agricultural sectors; for example, in 2023, potatoes contributed over 55% of the total farm cash receipts in Prince Edward Island, and 22% of the total farm cash receipts in New Brunswick. Manitoba and Alberta also have sizable potato sectors with higher total potato farm cash receipts than both Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick; however, potato farm cash receipts represent only 4% and 2%, respectively, of the total farm cash receipts for Manitoba and Alberta.

In 2023, potato growers across Canada produced approximately 5.8 million metric tons of potatoes. Canadian potato production is truly national, with production distributed across the country from coast-to-coast. Production on an area basis is distributed as 35% in Atlantic Canada, 21% in Central Canada, and 44% in the Prairie Provinces and British Columbia. The main producing provinces by volume were Alberta (24%), Manitoba (23%), Prince Edward Island (20%), New Brunswick (12%), Quebec (10%), and Ontario (7%).

Approximately 68% of the total production in 2023 was destined for the processing sector, 21% for the fresh/table sector, and 11% for the seed sector. Most processing potatoes are used to produce French fries, chips, and other processed potato products. The main French fry processing provinces, by volume, are Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, while Ontario has the largest potato chip sector. Most growers have state-of-the-art storage and are responsible for keeping good quality potatoes as required by the retailers and processors.

Approximately 150 seed potato varieties are registered in Canada for commercial production. Alberta (27%), Prince Edward Island (21%), Manitoba (16%), Quebec (12%), and New Brunswick (10%) were the largest seed potato producing provinces in 2023.

Canada is a net exporter of potato and potato products and the U.S. is by far the most important market for Canadian potatoes. In 2023/2024, Canada exported $50 million of seed potatoes, $493 million of fresh potatoes, $2.7 billion worth of French fries and $424 million of other processed potato exports to all countries.

In 2023/2024, the U.S. market represented 96% ($48 million) for seed, 93% ($457 million) for fresh and 91% ($2.4 billion) for French fry exports. During the same period, Canada imported a total value of $456 million worth of potato and potato products from the U.S., accounting for 85% of total imports from all countries ($534 million). Of that total imported value, $440 million was in processed potatoes ($126 million for frozen French fry and $314 million for other processed potatoes). The remaining $94 million was in fresh potatoes ($80 million for table stock potatoes and $14 million for seed potatoes).

Worldwide, Canada is among the top 10 exporting countries for table stock and seed potatoes. In 2023, in terms of value, Canada ranked 4th in table potato exports, totalling $580 million, and ranked 7th in exports of seed potatoes with a value of $53 million.

Source: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.