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Munich (dpa) - Good news for potato fans: After a difficult 2020 due to corona, no serious effects of the corona pandemic on potato cultivation in Germany are expected this year.
Experts assume that the area under cultivation could at most slightly decrease.
A shortage of potatoes or a price explosion are therefore not to be expected - provided the weather plays along.
“In the end, the amount of income will be decisive, how many potatoes there are and what they cost,” says Christoph Hambloch, the analyst for the potato market at Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (AMI).
"In 2020/21, however, there were only very low revenues for the producers, so that higher prices are more likely than even lower ones."
In the first year of the Corona crisis in 2020, the demand for tubers from hotels, restaurants and large canteens collapsed.
Farmers differentiate between table potatoes and processing potatoes for the production of French fries, ready meals and starch.
"Table potatoes actually went better because people cooked more at home," says Johann Graf, the potato expert at the Bavarian Farmers' Association.
"But the processing potatoes went really badly."
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The Corona crisis was followed by a French fries crisis, because French fries are predominantly consumed in restaurants, company canteens and fast food outlets.
"Three quarters of French fries are not eaten at home," says Graf.
The warehouses overflowed at times and prices plummeted.
This, in turn, led to fears that the farmers could significantly reduce the cultivation of processing potatoes this year, with the consequence of sharply rising prices and a lack of fries.
But it doesn't look like a potato shortage at the moment.
"The market recovered relatively quickly," says Graf.
According to the Bavarian potato expert, a slight reduction in the area under cultivation would not have any major effects.
“The weather is decisive for the harvest volume,” says Graf.
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The most important potato country is Lower Saxony by a large margin ahead of Bavaria.
According to preliminary figures, the nationwide cultivation area in 2020 was 274,900 hectares.
The Federal Information Center for Agriculture basically assumes that there will be no decline in areas, as a spokeswoman for the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) in Bonn says.
The very high stocks last year have now largely been reduced.
The processing companies have opened up new sales channels - "for example by exporting French fries to New Zealand," says the BLE spokeswoman.
In the long term, the potato suffers from a loss of importance anyway.
In 1950, according to the Federal Information Center, per capita consumption in Germany was over 200 kilograms per year; today it is a comparatively modest 55 kilograms.
70 years ago nowadays common side dishes such as rice or noodles were still exotic dishes in many parts of Germany.
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In any case, 2021 could be a normal potato year again if the weather is favorable.
"Demand in Germany should normalize and somewhere in Europe there is almost always a shortage of potatoes," says potato market expert Hambloch.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210506-99-485711 / 2
Federal Agricultural Information Center for Potato Cultivation