Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Russian potato production reaches record high in 2015
Russian potato production grew by 7% in 2015 and was the highest over at least 15 past years, according to Fruit-Inform.
Russian potato production totaled 33.6 mln tons in 2015. As a result Russian growers managed to set a new record in production volumes after they had totaled 32.7 mln tons in 2011.
Fruit-Inform analysts connect such an increase in production with a rise of 6% in potato yields in 2015. For comparison, yields averaged 14.9 tons per ha in 2014 and reached 15.9 tons per ha in 2015. Areas under potatoes also slightly increased in 2015.
A year-on-year rise in production is also confirmed by current prices of potatoes. Now they are averagely half as high as in the mid-January 2015. For comparison, now prices vary between RUB 7-12/kg (USD 0.09-0.15/kg) against RUB 18-22/kg (USD 0.32-0.39/kg) a year before.
According to Fruit-Inform, Russian potato production has been annually growing by 2-3% since 2012, and those growth rates are comparable with average in Europe and three times as high as in Ukraine. At the same time, Russian potato yields are 30-50% lower than average in Europe (the 30th position in the ranking), and potato yield growth rates are the lowest in Eastern Europe.