Potato acreage in Ukraine is growing

THE potato acreage in the Ukraine has increased by 2.7% since 2015 to 1.33 million hectares in 2020, a new report has revealed.

The past five years have seen the country's acreage increase by 35,000 hectares, the report by the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club (UCAB), shows, with almost 14.825 million tons of potatoes being harvested from 948,700 hectares.

Despite the large number of areas from which potatoes have already been harvested, the yield per hectare is low. For comparison, in 2018 the average yield in Ukraine was 16.76 tons per ha, in 2019 15.21 tons per ha, and in 2020 15.63 tons per ha.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic this year, along with unfavorable weather conditions, potato imports were also pretty high. In the first half of the year, potato imports amounted to 233,760 tons.

Belarus is currently the main country-supplier of potatoes to Ukraine, accounting for almost 55.7% of all imported potatoes (130,330 tons). Its other main importers include Russia – 42,470 tons, the Netherlands – 31,220 tons , Egypt – 8,930 tons and Belgium – 8,150 tons.