China: Dingbian County Expects Nearly 500,000 t of Potatoes From 200,000 Mu, Field Price 1.2 Yuan/kg
Dingbian in northern Shaanxi is harvesting 200,000 mu of potatoes and expects close to 500,000 t; field-gate price is 0.6 yuan per jin and 95% of area uses virus-free seed.
Dingbian County in China’s Shaanxi Province is harvesting potatoes from 200,000 mu, or about 13,300 hectares, and expects close to 500,000 tonnes of fresh tubers, the local newspaper Yulin Daily reported on 29 September 2026. Dingbian lies in the sandy north of Shaanxi, near the border with Ningxia and Inner Mongolia.
According to the report, 95% of the county’s potato area is planted with virus-free seed. Integrated smart water and fertiliser systems cover 12,000 mu, or about 800 hectares. The county can process 700,000 tonnes of fresh potatoes per year.
Farm-level numbers
The newspaper describes large grower Gao Qirong in Jiaquan village. He planted 1,500 mu, about 100 hectares, this year. He started with a few dozen mu more than ten years ago. His yield is stable at more than 4 tonnes per mu, which equals about 60 tonnes per hectare, with a marketable share of 90%.
Weekdays. Unsubscribe in one click.
The field-gate purchase price is 0.6 yuan per jin, which is 1.2 yuan per kilogram, or 1,200 yuan per tonne. At this price, gross income is more than 4,800 yuan per mu, the report says. More than ten trucks come to the fields every day to collect potatoes. Stable sales channels have raised income by more than 10,000 yuan per household on average, according to the newspaper.
The county average implied by the forecast is about 2.5 tonnes per mu, or about 37 tonnes per hectare. This is well below the yield of the large grower, which shows the gap between leading farms and the rest of the county.
Why it matters
Northern Shaanxi is part of China’s northern single-crop potato belt, together with Gansu, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. Dingbian has built its model on sandy soils, irrigation, virus-free seed and local processing capacity larger than its own harvest. A processing capacity of 700,000 tonnes against expected output of 500,000 tonnes means plants also need potatoes from outside the county.
The field price of 1.2 yuan per kilogram gives a benchmark for the northern harvest in 2026. Buyers can compare it with prices in other northern regions during the main harvest. For seed and irrigation suppliers, the county shows how quickly virus-free seed and drip systems can spread when growers have secure buyers.
Photo: Potato harvest (not China) (illustrative). Narek75 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
