Around 740 thousand tonnes of potatoes were harvested by farmers in Tajikistan in the current season as of the end of the last work week, Eastfruit analysts report. This is 100.5 thousand tonnes more compared to the same period in 2020.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture of the country, potatoes were planted on a total area of 34.18 thousand hectares in 2021. As of November 12, potatoes were harvested from an area of 32.55 thousand hectares.
387 145 thousand tonnes of potatoes were harvested in the Sughd region and 108 352 thousand tonnes in the Khatlon region. Potato growers of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region harvested 18.59 thousand tonnes of potatoes, and in other regions of the country, the harvest amounted to 225 195 tonnes.
The average price for a kilogram of potatoes in the capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe, is 4 TJS (about USD 0.35).
As EastFruit previously reported, there are regions in Tajikistan that have two potato harvests per year. However, they account for only about 10% of the country’s potato production. The main bulk of potato harvest in Tajikistan is provided by the mountainous regions of the Zeravshan Valley, Istaravshan, Shahristan, Ganchi, Jiragatal.
This is the north of the country and potatoes are harvested only once per year in these areas – they are harvested in September and usually planted in April. Therefore, the maximum supply of potatoes on the market is noted in September-October, and it is for stored to ensure supplies in the winter-spring period.
Since there is a shortage of modern potato storage facilities in the country, the shortage of potatoes usually begins to be felt in February-March. A large part of potato stocks has been used up by this time, some have already deteriorated, and some are being bought or used by growers for planting for a new crop.
