Spain (Castilla y León): The potato season started with good yield and quality but low prices for the producer

Roberto Arriba Rodríguez, a farmer from Carpio in Valladolid who cultivates tubers and raises pigs, analyzes the start of the potato harvest: "We started at the beginning of the week and everything is going as expected, with good quality, which is the most important thing." Although the weather affected some of the foliage, the harvest is "around 60 tons per hectare," which is "better than anticipated." 

However, Arriba points out the growing technical difficulties in the field: "We have fewer and fewer treatment options, and we are forced to use other products that are more harmful to the potatoes, making it much more complicated, especially in treatments against weeds and beetles."

Regarding profitability, he comments on the discrepancy between the price received under the production contract and the cost in supermarkets: "If I sell it now for 25 cents and in the supermarket it’s 80 or more, that’s not four times more, but ten or twelve times more. Everyone has to make a profit, but the important thing is that at least we don’t lose."

Finally, Arriba reflects on consumption: "The message to the consumer is that you can’t eat pretty things. We are being taught to buy potatoes in bags that look like gifts, when what’s important is that the potato is good, not pretty."