Global potato statistics: An overview

Dear Readers, I often receive requests related to global potato statistics from industry folks around the world. The most authoritative – and for that matter the only – source that I am aware of in this regard, is the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO maintains a databasis on many different crops, named FAOSTAT. It provides free access to food and agriculture data for over 245 countries and territories and covers all FAO regional groupings from 1961 to the most recent year available.

FAOSTAT provides a powerful search facility that users can employ and manipulate to obtain data about a chosen crop, although the results can be somewhat overwhelming to some extent. I extracted data for the potato crop related to “production” and “area harvested”, and present the results in the tables below (for 130 countries where potatoes are cultivated). The latest FAOSTAT data available is for 2018.

Readers can of course visit the FAOSTAT website and perform their own searches of the database as preferred – the English version can be accessed here: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data

Please note: The FAOSTAT data presented here might not exactly correlate with the official data provided by government and/or industry organizations for some countries, but it should be close enough.

Potato production (FAOSTAT, 2018) – metric tonnes

World total: 368,168,914 tonnes

1. China	90,259,155
2. India	48,529,000
4. Ukraine	22,503,970
5. Russian Federation	22,394,960
6. United States of America	20,607,342
7. Bangladesh	9,744,412
8. Germany	8,920,800
9. France	7,870,973
10. Poland	7,478,184
11. Netherlands	6,029,734
12. Belarus	5,865,123
13. Canada	5,790,838
14. Iran	5,321,188
15. Peru	5,121,110
16. United Kingdom	5,028,000
17. Egypt	4,896,476
18. Algeria	4,653,322
19. Pakistan	4,591,776
20. Turkey	4,550,000
21. Kazakhstan	3,806,992
22. Brazil	3,688,029
23. Colombia	3,107,580
24. Nepal	3,088,000
25. Belgium	3,045,443
26. Romania	3,022,758
27. Uzbekistan	2,911,933
28. North Korea	2,500,000
29. South Africa	2,467,724
30. Argentina	2,340,103
31. Japan	2,261,945
32.Spain	2,010,933
33. Kenya	1,870,375
34. Morocco	1,869,149
35. Denmark	1,806,766
36. Mexico	1,802,592
37. Tanzania	1,768,154
38. Kyrgyzstan	1,446,610
39. Nigeria	1,363,358
40. Italy	1,307,598
41. Indonesia	1,284,762
42. Australia	1,188,655
43. Chile	1,183,357
44. Bolivia	1,160,940
45 Malawi	1,125,874
46. Tajikistan	964,644
47. Azerbaijan	898,914
48. Rwanda	847,302
49. Angola	806,552
50. Ethiopia	743,153
51. Sweden	720,200
52. Austria	697,931
53. Afghanistan	615,684
54. Finland	600,300
55. Czechia	583,560
56. Guatemala	564,314
57. South Korea	553,596
58. Syria	540,000
59. Myanmar	512,443
60. New Zealand	511,776
61. Israel	511,163
62. Serbia	487,909
63. Saudi Arabia	482,305
64. Greece	465,770
65. Sudan	442,988
66. Portugal	431,686
67. Latvia	426,900
68. Tunisia	423,800
69. Switzerland	417,156
70. Armenia	415,050
71. Bosnia and Herzegovina	394,274
72. Lebanon	387,791
73. Vietnam	376,377
74. Venezuela	371,744
75. Libya	348,361
76. Hungary	330,545
77. Norway	326,400
78. Mali	310,902
79. Cameroon	302,706
80. Burundi	302,665
81. Lithuania	296,229
82. Iraq	294,778
83. Turkmenistan	293,533
84. Mozambique	273,335
85. Ireland	273,000
86. Ecuador	269,201
87. Bulgaria	261,594
88. Madagascar	257,379
89. Albania	254,543
90. Yemen	248,889
91. Georgia	237,500
92. Croatia	182,261
93. North Macedonia	181,931
94. Jordan	177,431
95. Moldova	174,774
96. Slovakia	169,953
97. Mongolia	168,883
98. Niger	168,569
99. Uganda	162,151
100. Guinea	151,326
101. Cuba	135,147
102. Lesotho	130,602
103. Thailand	125,106
104. Philippines	117,423
105. Cyprus	106,452
106. Democratic Republic of the Congo	101,398
107. Costa Rica	93,567
108. Sri Lanka	88,897
109. Dominican Republic	88,557
110. Estonia	88,434
111. Uruguay	87,000
112. Senegal	79,499
113. Slovenia	72,917
114. Nicaragua	66,167
115. Taiwan	62,287
116. Zimbabwe	60,521
117. Palestine	57,315
118. Bhutan	56,792
119. Chad	41,583
120. Kuwait	36,212
121. Haiti	34,475
122. Honduras	26,904
123. Montenegro	26,098
124. Panama	23,941
125. Mauritius	17,033
126. Luxembourg	16,211
127. Jamaica	16,184
128. Oman	15,613
129.. Namibia	14,520
130. Zambia	13,546

Potato area harvested (FAOSTAT, 2018) – hectares

World total: 17,578,672 hectares

1. China	4,810,888
2. India	2,151,000
3. Ukraine	1,319,900
4. Russian Federation	1,313,495
5. Bangladesh	477,419
6. United States of America	414,115
7. Nigeria	371,341
8. Peru	323,092
9. Poland	297,484
10. Belarus	271,772
11. Germany	252,200
12. Kenya	217,315
13. North Korea	215,390
14. France	199,886
15. Nepal	195,268
16. Pakistan	193,992
17. Kazakhstan	192,326
18. Tanzania	190,053
19. Bolivia	180,802
20. Egypt	176,670
21. Romania	173,296
22. Netherlands	164,689
23. Iran	164,410
24. Algeria	149,665
25. Colombia	141,299
26. United Kingdom	140,000
27. Turkey	135,904
28. Canada	134,102
29. Angola	131,403
30. Brazil	118,297
31. Belgium	93,331
32. Rwanda	92,800
33. Uzbekistan	86,443
34. Kyrgyzstan	84,428
35. Japan	73,281
36. Argentina	72,442
37. Indonesia	68,683
38. South Africa	68,277
39. Malawi	68,133
40. Spain	67,488
41. Ethiopia	66,933
42. Morocco	62,033
43. Mexico	60,303
44. Azerbaijan	59,311
45. Denmark	51,961
46. Tajikistan	49,643
47. Italy	46,429
48. Madagascar	43,435
49. Chile	41,268
50. Uganda	37,754
51. Sudan	35,584
52. Bosnia and Herzegovina	35,159
53. Myanmar	33,468
54. Afghanistan	32,400
55. Syria	30,000
56. Australia	29,740
57. Serbia	28,232
58. Burundi	27,097
59. South Korea	25,772
60. Tunisia	25,082
61. Vietnam	24,673
62. Sweden	23,810
63. Austria	23,755
64. Czechia	22,889
65. Guatemala	22,480
66. Latvia	22,100
67. Ecuador	22,099
68. Armenia	22,062
69. Democratic Republic of the Congo	22,002
70. Finland	21,400
71. Portugal	20,800
72. Cameroon	20,449
73. Venezuela	19,733
74. Lithuania	19,163
75. Saudi Arabia	19,149
76. Moldova	18,946
77. Georgia	18,800
78. Iraq	18,780
79. Mozambique	18,022
80. Libya	17,918
81.Greece	16,830
82. Turkmenistan	16,697
83. Yemen	16,171
84. Lebanon	15,355
85. Israel	15,036
86. Bulgaria	14,096
87. Mali	13,689
88. Hungary	13,387
89. Mongolia	12,925
90. North Macedonia	12,691
91. Guinea	11,753
92. Norway	11,614
93. Switzerland	10,613
94. New Zealand	10,152
95. Albania	9,726
96. Croatia	9,272
97. Ireland	8,200
98. Slovakia	7,760
99. Lesotho	7,640
100. Thailand	7,639
101. Philippines	7,571
102. Cuba	6,162
103. Jordan	5,795
104. Niger	5,672
105. Bhutan	5,369
106. Estonia	5,205
107. Sri Lanka	5,174
108. Chad	4,237
109. Cyprus	4,223
110. Uruguay	4,167
111. Swaziland	4,035
112. Costa Rica	3,682
113. Zimbabwe	3,538
114. Nicaragua	3,430
115. Senegal	3,356
116. Dominican Republic	3,321
117. Slovenia	2,812
118. Haiti	2,718
119. Taiwan	2,654
120. Honduras	1,815
121. Zambia	1,809
122. Montenegro	1,619
123. Central African Republic	1,578
124. Palestine	1,562
125. Namibia	1,201
126. Jamaica	1,122
127. Panama	960
128. Timor-Leste	865
129. Burkina Faso	752
130. Mauritius	719

Source: FAOSTAT
Photo: MyGourmetConnection