Grecia: Rains to reduce potato harvest by up to 50%

Furthermore, the rainy weather in winter was not favourable for the binding of tubers, so production volumes have fallen by about 50%, as stated by growers themselves.

This year’s good prices will however not compensate for the losses registered last year because of the drop in available volumes, as pointed out by Nikos Georgakopoulos, a producer based in Kapeleto."There is great demand for the product from Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania and many of us are exporting there, with prices reaching 0.50 Euro/kilo, which is higher than what we are able to obtain from Greek traders and supermarkets," noted Mr Georgakopoulos.The first greenhouse potatoes reached prices of 0.50-0.55 Euro/kilo, and the open ground harvests have been delayed by at least 10 days due to the bad weather conditions.It is worth noting that, last year, the price of Messinia’s open ground production dropped by 20%, down to 0.35 Euro/kilo, while Ilia started at 0.40 Euro, but then dropped to 0.10 Euro, pushing growers to reduce plantings this year.