2024 Sees Another Record Harvest in Canadian Potato Production
Due to an increase in harvested area, production rose by 0.3% year over year (y-o-y) in 2024 to 5.76m tons, allowing Canadian growers to harvest a record potato crop for the fourth consecutive year.
The biggest output gains were seen in New Brunswick (+14.3% to 771,107 tons) and Quebec (+17.5 percent to 621,421 tons), as these provinces bounced back from 2023’s rainy growing conditions. With 23.7% of all Canadian potatoes produced in 2024, Alberta remained the country’s top producer, followed by Manitoba (21.6%) and Prince Edward Island (20.4%).
In 2024, seeded area nationwide decreased by 0.3% from 2023 to 158,409 hectares. Because there was less demand for processing potatoes in Alberta (-4.5%) and Manitoba (-3.0%), the two provinces saw the biggest declines in seeded areas. Increases in Quebec (+4.6%), Ontario (+4.1%), and Prince Edward Island – PEI – (+0.9%) partially offset the declines in seeded area.
Favorable weather conditions throughout most parts of Canada during the 2024 harvest season allowed Canadian producers to harvest the vast majority (98.0%) of the total seeded area. Despite the decrease in seeded area, the harvested area was up 0.5% to 155,264 hectares in 2024, following improved growing conditions in Eastern Canada.
Nationally, the average yield decreased to 37.05 tons per hectare in 2024, down 0.2% from the previous year. Alberta (-1.8%) continued to report having the highest average yield, at 45.9 tons per hectare in 2024, followed by Manitoba (-2.7% to 40.5 tons per hectare) and British Columbia (-10.7% to 36.9 tons per hectare). New Brunswick (+9.3%) and Quebec (+10.3%) were the only provinces to experience increased yields in 2024.
