Germany: Potato Harvest Nears the Finish Line as Table Prices Hold at Double Last Year’s Level
Week-40 quotes from three German state agencies show table potato prices holding at about double last year's level as the harvest nears its end.
Germany’s potato harvest is entering its final days. In Schleswig-Holstein, most farms finished lifting in the last week of September, the state’s agricultural chamber reports, as mild late-summer weather sharply accelerated harvest progress. Yields varied widely even within the state, but averaged out around normal, and tuber quality is described as satisfactory.
Producer prices for table potatoes are holding steady at a high level. In Schleswig-Holstein, firm-cooking varieties are quoted at 26–28 euros per 100 kg in week 40, and mainly firm-cooking at 25–27 euros. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the official quote stands at 30 euros per 100 kg across all cooking types, unchanged, with 15 euros per 25 kg sack in the small and market trade.
The Hesse state agency’s weekly survey shows how unusual this season is. Producer prices for firm-cooking table potatoes averaged 36.75 euros per 100 kg in the week to 29 September — against 17.25 euros in the same week last year, an increase of 113 percent. Mainly firm-cooking lots averaged 34.75 euros, up from 15.75 euros a year ago. Wholesale prices, however, have not followed: sacked potatoes traded at an average of 47.33 euros per 100 kg, slightly below last year’s 49.50 euros, which points to pressure on packers’ margins.
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The market commentary from North Rhine-Westphalia adds two fresh signals. Retailers are starting stock-up promotions, which are expected to give the table market further demand impulses. And for the first time this season, the agency quoted the processing variety Fontane: industrial potatoes 35 mm+ are listed at 23–28 euros per 100 kg, loose, ex sorting station.
Why it matters. Germany is the EU’s largest potato producer, and week-40 quotes confirm the season’s split: table growers are earning twice last year’s prices after drought cut the crop in the southern states and area shrank, while packers and wholesalers absorb the increase rather than passing it on. Stable official quotes as lifting ends suggest the table market has found its level going into storage sales — unlike the processing market, where free-buy prices remain volatile.
Spot prices for processing potatoes were covered in detail in EU Potato Market Splits in Two as Spot Prices Leave 2026 Contracts Behind.
Sources: Agrarmarkt NRW (28 September 2026); LLH Hessen weekly survey, week 40 (29 September 2026); LKSH Schleswig-Holstein, week 40 (28 September–4 October 2026).
