Chile: Heavy rain holds up potato planting in Osorno as prices stay above CLP 20,000 a sack
Persistent rain in southern Chile is keeping growers in the province of Osorno, in the Los Lagos Region, out of their fields just as the new potato season should be getting under way. Meanwhile, fresh potatoes remain scarce at the local market, where the few sacks on offer are selling for no less than 20,000 Chilean pesos (around US$21).
Waterlogged fields
According to the local outlet SoyChile, frequent rainfall over recent weeks has prevented Osorno growers from preparing their land and planting on schedule. Saturated soils cannot bear machinery, so fieldwork has been put on hold until conditions improve.
The timing matters. Southern Chile, from La Araucanía down to Los Lagos, produces the bulk of the country’s storage potatoes, which supply the domestic market through the winter and spring. These crops are planted during the southern-hemisphere spring, in October and November.
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Tight supply keeps prices firm
Early potatoes are still reaching the Osorno market only in small volumes, and the limited stock is changing hands at CLP 20,000 a sack or more. Chile’s standard wholesale unit is the 25 kg sack, which would put the price at roughly CLP 800, or about US$0.85, per kilogram. With so little product available, there is no sign of prices easing for now.
A nationwide price surge
Osorno’s situation reflects a wider trend. According to the October bulletin of ODEPA, the agricultural policy and research office of Chile’s Ministry of Agriculture, the average wholesale potato price in September 2026 reached CLP 20,522 per 25 kg sack. That was 33% higher than in August and 242% higher than in September 2025.
At consumer level, potatoes sold at open-air street markets in the Santiago Metropolitan Region averaged CLP 1,145 per kilogram in September, up 23% on the previous month and double the level of a year earlier.
ODEPA attributes the rise to dwindling deliveries of stored potatoes from the southern regions to wholesale markets. In other words, last season’s stocks in the south are running low, while the new harvest from central and northern Chile has yet to arrive in significant volumes. The CLP 20,000 a sack now being paid in Osorno is broadly in line with the national average recorded in September.
Looking ahead
The planting delay creates uncertainty on two fronts. In the short term, it is unclear when larger volumes of fresh potatoes will reach local markets. Further out, late planting in the south could push back harvesting and the build-up of storage stocks in 2027.
How prices develop will depend on the weather over the coming weeks and on how quickly growers can catch up on the work they have had to postpone.
Sources: SoyChile, Argenpapa, ODEPA
