Pakistan Can Become One of China’s Favorite Potato Exporters
Given that Chinese potatoes are more expensive, particularly from January to April every year, China has the potential to be a significant market for Pakistani potatoes.
One of the relatively few crops for which Pakistan is self-sufficient in terms of internal consumption and seed production and an exporter is the potato.
“We can say that potatoes are cultivated and harvested in Pakistan in some form around the whole year. We have three crops of potatoes. The first is called the Autumn crop. We sow in October and harvest it in February. The second is an imported variety, which is harvested from January to April. The third is the hill crop cultivated from April to September,” Syed Ijaz ul Hassan, director of Potato Research Institute Sahiwal, declared, cited by Pakistan Today!
The expert added that, in international markets like Dubai’s, they demand Pakistan’s potatoes more because of the product’s “beauty and color”.
“If we use this advantage, we can export to China. China has a large market. If we cannot export fresh potatoes then we can export them as starch and frozen fries too,” Hassan concluded.
Up by 35%
Pakistan’s potato production soared to 7.9m tonnes in Fiscal Year 2022 from 5.8m tonnes in FY 2021, up by 35% as floods did not hit Punjab which is a hub of potato production, Pakistan Today! cited data reveals.
There is a gradual increase in potato production in this country. During 2020, potato production was estimated to be 4.55m tons utilizing the cultivated area of 234,400 hectares. However, in the 2021- 2022 season, according to the Ministry of National Food Security and Research Statistics (MNFS&R), potato production jumped to 7.74m tons, which is an increase of almost 50% as compared to the last year.
Pakistan potato is exported mainly to CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries like Russia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, UAE, Oman, the entire gulf, and Singapore, Malaysia in the Far East.
In Pakistan, potato is the fourth most important crop after wheat, rice, and corn. It is one of the four major staples that significantly contribute to national domestic consumption and food needs.
A Small Decrease in the Chinese Potato Production
Fresh potato production for the 2022-2023 Marketing Year (September to August) is forecast at 93m metric tons (MMT), a slight decrease from the estimated 95 MMT produced in MY 2021-2022 owing to reduced acreage. According to industry sources, the potato planting area decreased in the northern single crop zone, especially in northeast China, due to government incentives and price supports intended to boost soybean production.
Low prices at the start of the harvest season in the Southwestern, Central, and Winter crop zones, which account for half of China’s fresh potato production, also contributed to the reduction in planted area for MY 2022/23. According to China’s 2022 Agricultural Outlook Report on Potatoes, the average wholesale price of fresh potatoes in 2021 was USD0.15/lb., a 12.7% decline from 2020, and the lowest level in six years.
