French Potato Yields Set for 30-Year Low as Heatwave and Drought Cut Harvest by 23%

UNPT, the French national potato growers’ association, forecasts yields of around 37.4 t/ha for the 2026 crop, down sharply from 43.5 t/ha in 2025 and the lowest level in more than 30 years. The harvest is expected to come in 23% below last year’s, with losses exceeding 2 million tonnes. Planted area had already been reduced by 9.7% to 173,400 hectares following the oversupplied 2025 season, and the decisive blow came from a record-hot, dry July, with rainfall 67% below normal. UNPT estimates the total damage at no less than €400 million.

The implications extend well beyond France. As the EU’s largest producer of processing potatoes, France’s collapse in output helps explain the price surge already observed in Germany and the Benelux countries, where quotes have reached €230–310 per tonne. The French figures put concrete numbers behind the scale of the EU supply deficit, confirming that the price cycle set in motion by the 2025 oversupply is now translating into a genuine shortfall across the bloc’s most important growing region.