The topic of discussion at this year’s FN3PT Congress on December 6 is seed potato production in the European Union.

After declining by 2063 ha in 2022, the area in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Scotland, Denmark, and Belgium shrank by 6,485 ha in 2023.

“The lack of profitability of seedling production and the general increase in production costs in Europe explain this trend in a context where growers are turning away from the plant for the production of table potatoes or other crops because they are more remunerative. In 2023, these areas will fall well below 100,000 ha with 93,850 ha and will decrease by around 6.5% compared to 2022. You have to go back 10 years to find this level of plant areas,” a recent FN3PT announcement reveals.

Still, there hasn’t been much of a shift in how land is distributed among the producing nations. Almost 82% of seedling production areas are still accounted for by the top three countries, which are consistently the Netherlands, France, and Germany. Plant areas are declining in all countries, albeit not very sharply. For the second consecutive season, France had the biggest loss, coming in at -10.44% (compared to -3.38% in 2022). Germany saw a loss in surface area of 7.60%, while the Netherlands saw a decrease of 5.87%. The Danes alone saw a 5.75 percent rise in plant area.