Rising consumption and population growth fuel potato demand in India

Potatoes have a bright future in India. Rapid growth in consumption, combined with ongoing population growth, is ensuring a strong and sustained increase in demand. After China, India has the largest number of hectares of potatoes worldwide. With several significant jumps, potato cultivation in India has expanded in recent years to over 2.3 million hectares. China has about a quarter of global production with an area of just under 4.6 million hectares. But what China does not have and India does, is a growing population. India has therefore overtaken China as the country with the most inhabitants. And this increase results in a greater demand. In the past year, the population in India has grown by about 14 million people. In about two to three years, the country will have 1.5 billion inhabitants. With the rise of fast-food chains in Asia, we are also seeing an increase in the consumption of potato products there. In India, the consumption of potatoes and potato products rose to about 28 kilos in 2023, according to figures from the World Food Organization FAO. Especially in recent years, we have seen this consumption grow. Until 2021, production fluctuated around 25 kilos per person for many years. The rise of the potato processing industry in India is thus driven by a strong increase in domestic demand for potatoes. In addition, these companies also see opportunities to engage in nearby export markets. This also applies to China. Although the population in China is shrinking, consumption has also increased significantly since 2021. The difference is, however, that the Chinese are already at a level of 48 kilos of potatoes and potato products per person. The room for further increase is therefore somewhat smaller than in India. In India, consumption is still slightly less than the global average of about 31 kilos per person. Then Egypt. Also an important growth market. The country has significantly fewer people than China or India. But growth in potato consumption is robust. However, annual consumption seems somewhat dependent on availability, as according to the FAO, nearly 40 kilos per person was consumed in 2020. In 2023, this remained at 34.4 kilos. This is all significantly more than the 27 to 29 kilos in the years 2010 to 2019. Moreover, the population in Egypt is still growing rapidly. In 2023, the country had 114 million inhabitants and with a growth of as much as 1.5% per year, the 120 million mark is now very close. With more mouths to feed, potato consumption is being significantly boosted.