China: Harvest Peaks in Hebei’s Bashang Potato Belt, Where Weichang County Grows 600,000 mu

The potato harvest is at its peak on the Bashang plateau in northern Hebei province, one of China’s main autumn potato-growing areas, according to reports by state media on 19–20 September.

In Weichang county, in the city of Chengde, harvesting has started in bulk on more than 600,000 mu of potatoes, Guangming Online reported on 20 September. One mu is one-fifteenth of a hectare, so the area equals roughly 40,000 hectares. According to the report, the county’s potato area is more than 600,000 mu and its annual output exceeds 1 million tonnes. At the site shown in the report, 1,000 mu were being harvested by machine.

In the Saibei Management Area of Zhangjiakou, further west, potatoes were planted on 52,300 mu this year (about 3,490 hectares), Xinhua reported in a photo story on 19 September. The expected total output value is CNY 251 million. Xinhua did not give a tonnage.

The figures come from local authorities quoted by state media. Each set of figures appears in only one of the two reports, and neither has been independently confirmed.

Context

The Bashang plateau lies on the edge of the Inner Mongolian plateau, north of Beijing. Its cool summers allow a single potato crop a year, harvested in September. China is the world’s largest potato producer.

The harvest comes as Chinese potato sales to one of its export markets are falling: Russia’s purchases of Chinese potatoes slumped in August as Russia’s own new crop arrived.

Why it matters

Northern China’s autumn crop determines domestic supply and prices through the winter and spring, and it shapes how much China offers to export markets in Central Asia and Russia. Traders and importers in neighbouring markets should watch wholesale prices in Hebei and Inner Mongolia over the coming weeks as the harvest moves into store.

Photo: Potato harvest with a windrower in Inner Mongolia, northern China (illustrative). Grimme Group / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0