R.Checa: Potato harvest begins in the Vysočina region

Early potatoes in Elbe and South Moravia are harvested from June.

Farmers in the Czech Republic have again expanded the areas planted with potatoes this year and overall a good harvest can be expected, but the market situation is more complicated, said Josef Králíček, chairman of the Czech Potato Association. According to him, growers do not make money on table potatoes when sold in bulk.

The weather this year did not harm the potatoes much, but in some places there were longer periods of drought. "We can assume that the yields will be average or higher. In some places the harvest will be very good, on the other hand, in some regions the tubers are smaller and the yield there will be only average," said Králíček.

When selling packaged ware potatoes, the farm price is now below four crowns per kilogram, i.e. approximately at the level of production costs. According to the chairman, it is similar in Germany and Austria. Growers are paid better when selling from the yard, and those who have multi-year contracts with processors also have better prices.

The harvest of early potatoes in the Czech Republic was initially affected by the import of last year’s potatoes from abroad, which had an impact on the price of domestic production and its sales. "The harvest did not proceed at the pace that would have been necessary," said Králíček. According to his estimate, about half of the potatoes are still in the fields in the early potato-growing areas. They will now start to clash on the market with later-harvested consumption potatoes from the Highlands.

Czech farmers have been expanding their potato fields for the past two years, last year by 1,800 hectares, or 8.6 percent, according to the Czech Statistical Office. This year they added another 1,400 hectares, bringing the total area of ​​potatoes to 24,174 hectares. These include potatoes for food, starch production and seed potatoes. The area of ​​potato fields increased by 6.3 percent year-on-year. In the Vysočina region, there were 8,224 hectares of them.

According to Králíček, several factors contributed to this, the main one being the setting of support for potato growers. "A number of growers participated in those programs, and they responded by increasing the planted area," he said. The past two seasons have also turned out quite well for them economically.

But potato cultivation has also increased in Western Europe this year, by more than 80,000 hectares compared to last year. "Which is almost three times the area (with potatoes) in the Czech Republic, including gardens," he pointed out. A large part of the potatoes was intended for the production of French fries, but their export from Europe is not going as fast as expected, the chairman said. The harvest is larger. Processors are only purchasing potatoes for which they have concluded contracts. The price per kilogram of surplus production there has fallen to a crown or less. "That situation is also reflected in us," said Králíček.