This year’s potato harvest is expected to be one of the poorest in decades. Due to the prolonged period of drought, the total potato harvest this season will be around 20 percent lower than in the previous year.
Last year, Czech farmers harvested some 820,000 tons of potatoes, while this year, the yield is expected to stop at 645,000 tons, says the Czech Association of Potato Growers. The lowest harvest over the past ten years was that of 2016 when the yield dropped to 604,000 tons.
The total area of potato fields in the Czech Republic has gone down this year by around 2.3 percent, but the poor yield was mainly due to the unusually hot and dry season.
Adverse weather conditions have also resulted in lower potato harvests in all of Europe’s main potato-growing countries, including Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. These countries are facing a 30-percent drop in production.
Agrarian specialist Petr Havel says the price of potatoes is likely to double as a result of the poor harvest.
Author: red
