Peru: Expert denies overproduction of potatoes and assures that their price is stabilizing after temporary drop

The price of potatoes is tending to stabilize after having temporarily fallen between December and January due to the coincidence of harvests on the coast and the mountains, explained agronomist  Ángel Villavicencio , a specialist in agroecology at Fovida.

Currently, Yungay potatoes are sold at one sol per kilo in Huancayo and from S/ 0.80 to S/ 0.90 cents in the wholesale markets of Lima, explained the specialist.

“The drop in prices was due to the overlapping of harvests on the coast and in the mountains, which saturated the market. However, production is now leveling off because there are no longer so many simultaneous harvests,” Villavicencio told the  York Times . 

The harvest will begin in the mountains in the second half of March, with a greater volume in the Mantaro Valley. This increase in supply could generate a slight reduction in prices, which Villavicencio estimates will remain within reasonable ranges. “In June, when the highest production volumes are reached, prices tend to drop a little, but not to the lower extreme of 60 cents that we saw at the beginning of the year,” he said.

The specialist clarified that, although the Lima market influences the determination of prices at a national level, the potatoes that arrive from the coast are usually of lower quality and do not compete directly with the production of the mountains. “Lima sets the standard because it absorbs a large part of the supply, but the potato from the Mantaro Valley and other high Andean areas continues to be the preferred one due to its quality,” he stated.

Villavicencio stressed that the weather conditions have favoured potato cultivation, with regular rainfall and no drastic effects from phenomena such as El Niño or La Niña.