Production & Consumption

Dr. Cohen sent me a link to a site that is all about 2008 being the International Year of the Potato! Exciting. I found these maps and charts and thought they were pretty interesting. In 2006, the USA was the 4th leading potato producer. North America was 5th for production in 2006 and also 5th for consumption in 2005. I will be posting more about what I find on this website, and if you want to look on your own the site is http://www.potato2008.org/en/index.html

World potato production, 1990-2006

	1990	1992	1994	1996	1998	2000	2002	2004	2006
Countries	million tonnes
Developed	195.22	184.64	168.69	193.59	169.25	182.04	163.58	171.79	155.25
Developing	84.09	93.44	102.38	117.71	131.41	146.51	152.41	157.77	159.12
WORLD	279.32	278.09	271.07	311.31	300.67	328.55	315.98	329.56	314.37
Source: FAOSTAT

The world potato sector is undergoing major changes. Until the early 1990s, most potatoes were grown and consumed in Europe, North America and countries of the former Soviet Union. Since then, there has been a dramatic increase in potato production and demand in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where output rose from less than 30 million tonnes in the early 1960s to almost 120 million tonnes by the mid-1990s. FAO data shows that in 2005, for the first time, the developing world's potato production - some 162 million tonnes - exceeded that of the developed world (156 million tonnes). China is now the biggest potato producer, and almost a third of all potatoes is harvested in China and India.

Top potato producers, 2006

	Quantity (t)		Kg per capita
1. China	70 338 000	1. Belarus	835.6
2. Russian Fed.	38 572 640	2. Netherlands	415.1
3. India	23 910 000	3. Ukraine	414.8
4. USA	19 712 630	4. Denmark	291.1
5. Ukraine	19 467 000	5. Latvia	286.0
6. Germany	10 030 600	6. Poland	271.5
7. Poland	8 981 976	7. Belgium	267.4
8. Belarus	8 329 412	8. Lithuania	261.2
9. Netherlands	6 500 000	9. Russian Fed.	259.0
10. France	6 354 333	10. Kyrgyzstan	219.4
Source: FAOSTAT

Europe

Latin
America

Asia/Oceania

Africa

North America

Production
quantity

Potato production, by region, 2006

	Harvested area	Quantity	Yield
	hectares	tonnes	tonnes/hectare
Africa	1 499 687	16 420 729	10.95
Asia/Oceania	9 143 495	131 286 181	14.36
Europe	7 348 420	126 332 492	17.19
Latin America	951 974	15 627 530	16.42
North America	608 131	24 708 603	40.63
WORLD	19 551 707	314 375 535	16.08
Source: FAOSTAT

Asia and Europe are the world's major potato producing regions, accounting for more than 80 percent of world production in 2006. While harvests in Africa and Latin America were far smaller, production was at record levels. North America was the clear leader in yields, at more than 40 tonnes per hectare.

Europe

Latin
America

Asia/Oceania

Africa

North America

Consumption
(per capita)

Potato consumption, by region, 2005

	Population	Consumption
		Total food (t)	kg per capita
Africa	905 937 000	12 850 000	14.18
Asia/Oceania	3 938 469 000	101 756 000	25.83
Europe	739 276 000	71 087 000	96.15
Latin America	561 344 000	13 280 000	23.65
North America	330 608 000	19 156 000	57.94
WORLD	6 475 634 000	218 129 000	33.68
Source: FAOSTAT

Asia consumes almost half of the world's potato supply, but its huge population means that consumption per person was a modest 25 kg in 2005. The heartiest potato eaters are Europeans. Per capita consumption is lowest, but increasing, in Africa and Latin America.