During the January-October 2021 period, Chile’s potato exports fell by 54.4%, to a total of 1.4m USD. During these 10 months, exports of potatoes for fresh consumption and prepared potatoes (not frozen) decreased, mainly.
On the other hand, Chilean potato imports ending in October 2021 totaled 115m USD. Experts say that potato imports grew by 60.9% more than in the same period of the previous year. Frozen prepared potatoes were the main product imported and grew by 82.1% in this period.
“According to the INE’s planting intentions report for October 2021, there’s been a 1.19% decrease in the planted area in the 2021-2022 season, which means there are 35,898 hectares of potatoes in the country. However, production is expected to be 2.8% higher, as the crops will achieve the average yield of the last two seasons,” PortalPortuario wrote on its website.
Based on the survey of the area planted with annual and industrial crops for the 2020-2021 season, which was carried out by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and the Office of Agrarian Studies and Policies (Odepa), there are 36,329 hectares of potatoes (or 17.7%) less than in the previous season. This is not consistent with the market’s behavior during 2020, which had stable prices and supply.
According to the 2020-2021 regional results, the regions with the highest potato production were Los Lagos with 377,806 tons and La Araucania with 209,526 tons. The highest yields were observed in Los Rios, with 49 tons per hectare, and Los Lagos, with 43.2 tons per hectare.
