Potato Review

38 POTATO REVIEW JANUARY 2022 INTERNATIONAL NEWS Prices go up in China SEVERE weather, high production and transportation costs, epidemic prevention and control, and power cuts, combined to significantly push up vegetable prices in China. As a result, Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural A airs (MOA) requested local governments across the country coordinate and adjust production, circulation and consumption. The ministry also asked to formulate emergency plans for disaster prevention and reduction in vegetable production at the earliest opportunity, in corresponding to the potential disruption posed by changing weather conditions and the upcoming La Nina phenomenon, which could bring a lower temperature than normal winters. The potato is the only crop that is plantable in all regions of China, although the country has four main potato-planting regions: North China (Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang). Autumn is the season when vegetables are relatively in short supply. Director of the Institute of Business Economics at the Beijing Technology and Business University, Hong Tao, told the Global Times recently that the shortage was further aggravated by the consumption recovery. Heavy rainfall leads to losses HUNDREDS of potato growers in the Munsiyari sub-division of Uttarakhand in northern India su ered heavy losses owing to heavy rainfall recently. Around 30% of crops were lost. Roads damaged in the rains worsened growers’ problems, leading to extra transportation costs to take produce to local markets. Incessant rains and floods in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest potato producer, left farmers, especially in the potato belt of Kannauj, staring at huge losses. Ironically, they had to buy potatoes at exorbitant rates to sow their next crop. The potato fields of Kannauj Uttar Pradesh prepared for the Rabi season became waterlogged with incessant and unexpected rains and prices of potatoes shot up, according to a report in the Gaon Connection. Vinod Kumar, a 60-year-old potato farmer from Khusatiya village in the district, said he had sold potatoes for no more than Rs 270 per katti (50 kgs), but was shelling out up to Rs 800 per katti to buy them. Traders look overseas for supply RECORD prices for potatoes in Russia and fears of a shortage of potatoes in the 2021/22 season have been forcing Russian traders to look for suppliers around the world. Since Russia has banned the supply of potatoes to its market from the EU, Ukraine, the United States and a number of other countries, the search for alternative suppliers of potatoes will not be an easy task. Egypt, the main potato supplier to Russia, will be able to export no earlier than February. Belarus itself is facing record high prices and is importing potatoes itself, from Ukraine. Russian potato growers can now sell their goods on average three times more expensive than usual at this time. Such a high level of prices can rationalize potato imports from rather distant countries. Russian importers manage to buy potatoes at an a ordable price in Kyrgyzstan and Moldova now. The volumes of these supplies can be large by the standards of the supplying countries, but they are small for the Russian Federation. According to traders, there are also more and more potatoes supplied to the Russian market from Iran. This is a case of large volumes. The possibilities of importing potatoes even from Pakistan are being looked at now. 90,000-tonexport fromBelarus AROUND 90,000 tons of potatoes were sold for export from Belarus from January to October, according to data released by the country’s Minister of Agriculture and Food, Ivan Krupko. The minister also noted that 4,2 million tons of potatoes are produced in Belarus, including 860,000 tons grown by non-state enterprises. To provide the population in the o -season, 52,000 tons of potatoes are needed.