French potato area appears much larger

French potato growers have cultivated another 5,000 hectares more than expected. According to new figures, the area this year exceeds 200,000 hectares for the first time. Until this week, it was assumed that the French area of early and storage potatoes had expanded by 24,000 hectares compared to last year. New figures from the statistical agency Agreste show that the increase is even more substantial; an increase of 29,275 hectares. This means an increase of 17% to 200,614 hectares. The yields also appear to be slightly higher than previously thought a month ago. The new estimate projects 42.6 tons per hectare. This remains lower than last year when 43.7 tons were harvested per hectare. Due to the enormous increase in area, production rises to 8.54 million tons. This is over 1 million tons (+14%) more than last year. It is mainly new growers who contribute to the expansion in France, but existing growers also have more potatoes in their crop plans. Starch potatoes stable The production of starch potatoes is stabilizing at last year's level, according to Agreste. Until now, a production decrease of 10% was anticipated. Here too, it turns out that more potatoes have been planted than expected. Earlier this year, a decline of 5% in starch potato cultivation was expected. The further contraction is now limited to 2%. Moreover, the starch potatoes are proving to yield significantly more than anticipated. The new estimate raises the yield forecast to 46.8 tons per hectare. That is 1 ton more than last year, while last month's forecast predicted a decline of more than 2 tons per hectare. The result of this is that the total production of starch potatoes remains at a level of 500,000 tons. This means that the industry will process 48,470 tons (11%) more than was predicted last month.