Spain: León Potato Exchange Opens the 2026 Season at €310–360 per Tonne as Provincial Area Shrinks
At its first potato session of the season on 23 September, the Lonja de León quoted Kennebec at €360/t and Agria at €330/t, calling the opening an acceptable price for a smaller campaign.
The Lonja de León, the agricultural price exchange of the Spanish province of León, opened its 2026 potato season on 23 September with quotations between €310 and €360 per tonne.
According to the exchange’s official price table, Kennebec was quoted at €360/t and Agria at €330/t. Red Scarlett and Yona were set at €320/t, while Jaerla and Red Pontiac opened at €310/t. Because this was the first potato session of the campaign, there is no previous quotation to compare with.
The exchange described the opening level as an acceptable price for a campaign marked by a smaller cultivated area. Local daily La Nueva Crónica reported that León’s potato area fell from 1,354 hectares to 1,210 hectares, a reduction of about 11%.
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The regional press linked the firm start to the shortage in north-west Europe, where drought has cut yields in the main producing countries. Several reports cited a European crop of little more than 20 million tonnes. That figure refers to the four core producers tracked by the North-Western European Potato Growers (NEPG) — Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands — rather than to the whole European Union; potatoes.news has covered the broader shortfall here.
The Lonja de León publishes its potato quotations weekly during the campaign, giving growers, packers and traders in the province a public reference point for contract talks and spot sales.
The table covers six varieties in four price bands. The spread between the top quote, for Kennebec, and the bottom quotes, for Jaerla and Red Pontiac, is €50 per tonne.
Why it matters
The benchmark exchange of a key Spanish storage region opened firmly, and the area behind it is smaller. If the north-west European shortage keeps pulling potatoes northwards, Spanish packers may face stronger competition for local supply this winter. The next weekly sessions will show whether the opening level holds once harvest volumes are known.
Photo: Hoeing a potato plot in Covelo, Galicia, Spain (illustrative). Bene Riobó / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
