The potato harvest in Germany in 2018, despite a fairly high acreage, fell to its lowest level since 1989. 

As reported by the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the production volume in 2018 amounted to 8.9m tons; this was 24% less than in 2017. The average of the past six years was thus missed by almost 2m tons, according to topagrar.com.

The statisticians explain that the negative development was due to the drought last year. The 2018 potato area puts Destatis at 252,200 ha, which is an increase of 1,700 ha or 0.7% over the previous year and was the largest area since 2011.

The president of the German Potato Trade Association (DKHV), Thomas Herkenrath, said at FruitLogistica in Berlin that the supply of “delicious and healthy potatoes” will be ensured this year despite the small harvest in 2018.

According to the latest data from Agrarmarkt Informations-GmbH (AMI), potato production in 2018 also fell across the EU, by 8.3m tons to 53.9m tons year-on-year.