Russia’s procurement of an unparalleled amount of potatoes from Georgia during the 2021/2022 season, which ran from May 2021 to April 2022, resulted in high prices in the Georgian market at the start of the season.
“Given the adverse weather conditions that led to poor potato production in the Russian Federation in the previous season, Russia switched to a very active import. The country does not usually buy Georgian potatoes, but it had to buy record volumes in 2021-2022,” EastFruit analysts recently wrote.
Georgia exported 57,000 tons of potatoes in the 2021/2022 season, a record-high volume-driven solely by Russian consumption. Because of the high level of exports, the local market has had the lowest supply in at least the last eight seasons. Of course, the scarcity of supplies resulted in high prices.