Costa Rica: Potatoes Cover 2,243 Hectares and Lead Vegetable Area in 2025 Farm Survey
The national agricultural survey puts the 2025 potato area at 2,243.3 hectares and the harvest at 36,151.1 tonnes. Potatoes and onions together take eight in ten hectares of the vegetables studied.
Potatoes are the largest vegetable crop by area in Costa Rica. This is the result of the 2025 National Agricultural Survey, known as ENA. The survey is run by the statistics institute INEC. The business magazine Revista EyN reported the results on 18 September.
According to the survey, potatoes covered an estimated 2,243.3 hectares in 2025. Farmers harvested 36,151.1 tonnes of potatoes.
Onions were in second place. They covered 929.6 hectares and produced 27,653.8 tonnes. The survey also studied cabbage and chayote. Cabbage covered 345.0 hectares and produced 16,508.1 tonnes. Chayote covered 428.7 hectares and produced 46,244.8 tonnes.
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Potatoes and onions together account for 80.4% of the planted area of the vegetables in the survey. Potatoes alone take about 57% of that area, by our calculation.
Yields differ strongly
The survey data allow a simple yield estimate. Dividing production by area gives about 16.1 tonnes per hectare for potatoes. The same method gives about 29.7 tonnes per hectare for onions. Chayote is a vine crop with a very high output per hectare. It produced the largest volume of the four crops from a much smaller area.
These yields are our own calculation from the survey totals. The survey itself does not publish a yield figure for potatoes in the reported results.
Trade pressure in the background
The potato sector has also been part of a trade dispute with Panama. In May 2026, the new government of Costa Rica moved talks with Panama to the diplomatic level. The dispute concerns potatoes, onions and dairy products. Panama said its measures protect public health, food security and national producers.
Why it matters
The survey gives a fresh official picture of a small but important market. Potato farming in Costa Rica is concentrated on a limited area. The estimated yield of about 16 tonnes per hectare is modest. This suggests room for gains from better seed, varieties and crop protection.
For suppliers of seed and inputs, the numbers help size the market. For policy makers, they show how much of the vegetable sector depends on one crop. Any trade deal or dispute on potatoes affects a large share of vegetable land in the country.
Photo: Vegetable fields in Oreamuno, Cartago province, Costa Rica (illustrative). Rodtico21 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
