Although some areas are more affected than others, Lars Elofson of Svensk Potatis says that generally there was not much damage to potato crops in Sweden due to the cold weather during April / May. Most of the Swedish potato production, around 40%, takes place in the southern region of Skane. According to Elofson, potatoes are of good quality and growers are at present not expecting any serious problems to show up this season. Soloist is the most common early variety planted in Sweden, followed by other popular varieties later in the season, such as Magda and Rocket. “Organic production is still growing in Sweden, and I expect that this season it will increase by 3-5%,” Lars mentions.
“I organic production will only improve with the constant development of more disease resistant varieties”. Lars says: “We have been working hard to inform consumers about the nutritional value of potatoes, but I have to note that most people in Sweden see potatoes as part of a healthy diet. Our promotional efforts came with a lot of help from food fairs, chefs, commercial advertising, paid articles, and social media such as Facebook and Instagram”.
In the last ten years, potato consumption in Sweden has been stable, and even slightly rising, as compared to a majority of countries who saw their potato sales decline. The Swedish consumer consumes approximately 83kg per capita of all potato products (including processed) and about 45kg per capita of fresh potatoes.
Full report can be found in Dutch on the Agf.nl web site
