Another important food shortage: Hungarian potato at risk

Not only is it getting more expensive, there are also not enough Hungarian potatoes. The Hungarian Potato Association is far from optimistic.

Potatoes are getting fewer and more expensive

The price of potatoes is rising, but that is not the biggest problem today, Portfolio.hu reports. The National Potato Association and Product Council estimates that 160-165 thousand tonnes of potatoes could be produced this year. According to the Central Statistical Office (KSH), it has fallen from 400 thousand tonnes to this level in five years, with 270 thousand tonnes forecast for 2021.

The trade organisation is not at all optimistic about the future. If yields and area shrinkage persist over the next few years, they see a threat to domestic supply security, hvg.hu writes. The annual per capita consumption of potatoes in 2020 was 28.3 kilograms, plus the needs of the catering, public catering and processing industries. However, even with a careful estimate, only half of the domestic demand was Hungarian, the rest was imported.

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Fewer potatoes from Ukraine as well

In addition, in Ukraine, which is the world’s fourth largest potato producer, there are not even estimates of the amount that will be produced this year. According to portfolio.hu, the shortage of Ukrainian potatoes will significantly rewrite the entire European supply map, but it is not expected to affect the development of Hungarian potato imports. However, the further narrowing of the supply window could make potatoes even more expensive.

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According to HelloVidék’s market information, the price of potatoes is currently between 300-500 HUF per kilo on the markets. Meanwhile, a year ago the average price of the late variety was 250 HUF per kilo, according to the statistics of KSH.

So, inflation is also pronounced for this product category, and if the above sectoral situation continues to complicate, and if much more modest quantities are produced compared to last year, there could be a further huge price increase.