Potato yield in Spain lowest in years

The recent potato harvest in Spain was far from satisfactory. Not only did Spanish farmers plant fewer potatoes in 2024, but the yield per hectare also turned out lower than average. These findings are based on the data published by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture. The potato acreage in Spain decreased by 0.9% compared to 2023. The total acreage reached 61,428 hectares, while the average yield decreased by 6.7% to 29.8 tons per hectare. This was the lowest yield since 2018. The late potato harvest was revised downwards to 692,044 tons on 17,839 hectares. This represents a slight decrease of 2.7% compared to the 711,314 tons from 2023. The average yield of late potatoes was 38.7 tons per hectare, 6.5% lower than the previous year. The yield of mid-early potatoes also fell below expectations. In this segment, there was a decrease of 18.3% to 651,634 tons. However, there seems to be more interest in growing more potatoes this year. The acreage for extra early potatoes is estimated at 2,165 hectares, an increase of 2.3% compared to the 2,117 hectares last year. A small note of caution is that the long-term trend shows a decline in acreage since 2017 (-1,752 hectares).