Faced With the Re-emergence of Late Blight The European Potato Production is at Risk
Leading European groups in the sector are raising the alarm: European potato output is in jeopardy due to the reappearance of late blight. Because of this, the leading companies in the industry have just unveiled an action plan in Brussels.
Even before all potato planting is finished, potato late blight poses a serious threat to the 2024 growing season in several European Union (EU) regions. Infecting potato plants’ foliage as well as their tubers, Phytophthora infestans is a pathogen that can wipe out an entire crop in as little as one or two weeks. Because of its great degree of adaptability, this virus can evade an increasing number of resistance genes by generating increasingly complex pathogenicity spectra, as seen by recent advancements. Additionally, a concerning trend of combined resistance to active components in single-site fungicides is emerging.
“These troubling developments are drastically reducing the effectiveness of current control tools, potentially undermining future Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies. This poses a severe threat to European potato production, the potato supply chain, and the positive EU trade balance. Against this background, the EU potato sector proposes both short-term and long-term solutions. In the short term, the action plan presented […], proposes among others, the creation of a stakeholder dialogue platform and the reinforcement of communications IPM strategies. In the mid-term, signatories propose developing a coordinated approach from the crop protection sector, breeders, researchers, and European farmers. The most effective way to control the spread of late blight remaining is the combined use of effective plant protection products and resistant potato varieties with combinations of different resistance genes as well as promoting best agricultural management practices. The EU action plan also focuses on the need to increase the awareness of EU institutions about the gravity of the situation and the need for swift actions in the coming months,” a recent COPA-COGECA press release reveals.
Potatoes are cultivated on 1.7 % of the EU’s arable land, totaling about 1.7m hectares in the EU. The EU is a net exporter of potatoes, mainly seed potatoes, with a value of EUR509m (2020). Beside of fresh consumption, potatoes are processed to be turned into four main types of products: frozen potatoes, dried potatoes, prepared or preserved potatoes, and potato starch. The overall value of EU processed potato production reached EUR9.1bn in 2019, equaling 1.6 % of the value of production of the whole European food industry. Frozen French fries and chips were the most significant products in terms of production value. The EU is also a net exporter of processed potatoes, standing at a value of EUR3bn in 2022.
Around 1.5m agricultural holdings in the EU grow potatoes. The value of raw potatoes (including seed potatoes) represents about 3% of the EU’s total agricultural output. For many agricultural holdings, potatoes are a break crop in rotation with cereals.
The most catastrophic potato disease, potato late blight, is what caused the 19th-century Irish Famine. An estimated EUR900m are lost to economic damage each year in the EU. Eight groups have created an Action Plan outlining steps that may be done to support the production of potatoes.
