Russia: Urals Potato Harvest Reaches 294,000 t by 23 September Against 693,000 t in 2025 as Wet Fields Slow Work
Farms in Russia's Urals Federal District had dug 294,000 tonnes of potatoes by 23 September. Sverdlovsk region, where waterlogging led to an emergency regime in 37 municipalities, has 90,000 tonnes in store.
Potato growers in Russia’s Urals Federal District had harvested 294,000 tonnes of potatoes by 23 September 2026. In the whole of last season, the district collected about 693,000 tonnes. The figures come from the press service of Artem Zhoga, the presidential envoy to the district, as reported by the regional agency RIA Novy Den. The envoy’s office said this year’s harvest is expected to be smaller because of heavy rain and related crop damage.
By the same date, farms in the district had also gathered 50,000 tonnes of open-field vegetables, against 159,000 tonnes in 2025. Grain was threshed on 77.1% of the area, with more than 4.2 million tonnes collected, compared with 7.1 million tonnes in the whole of 2025.
Sverdlovsk: 90,000 tonnes in store
In Sverdlovsk region, the largest potato producer in the district, governor Denis Pasler said on 28 September that the harvest of vegetables and potatoes is in full swing. Stores already hold 90,000 tonnes of potatoes and 7,300 tonnes of open-field vegetables. In 2025 the region harvested 254,000 tonnes of potatoes.
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The regional government has declared an emergency regime on farmland in 37 municipalities because of waterlogged soils after the rains of July and August. According to the agricultural news agency Svetich, the regime allows affected farms to claim crop insurance and protects them from penalties and repayment of subsidies if they miss yield targets. Pasler said about 5 billion roubles will go to support farm producers in the region in 2026. Anna Kuznetsova, the regional minister for agriculture and the consumer market, is in charge of the recovery plan.
A dry contrast in Omsk
East of the Urals, the picture is different. In Omsk region, part of the Siberian Federal District, the regional agriculture ministry reported on 18 September that the best potato yields were 35 tonnes per hectare in Omsk district and 30 tonnes per hectare in Tavrichesky district. There, the main problem is drought: in the south-east of the region, some grain yields fell to 10.5 centners per hectare.
Why it matters
The interim figures are not final, because digging continues. But the gap is large: the Urals district has so far collected less than half of last year’s potato crop, and Sverdlovsk about a third. Wet harvests also raise the risk of storage losses, as tubers lifted from waterlogged soil are more likely to rot.
For buyers in the Urals, this may mean more potatoes brought in from other Russian regions this winter. Growers should grade and dry wet-harvested lots carefully before long-term storage.
Photo: A potato field in Russia (illustrative). alinco_fan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
