Potatoes: Overview
From the dinner plate to fries, crisps and industrial starch
What this tab covers What the commodity is used for, why, in what volumes and with what alternatives, and its chain from mine or field to end user. Also the latest price moves, top recent news, three things to know, and buttons into each tab.Key uses
| Use | Share | Annual volume | Why this commodity | Alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh table potatoes for home cooking | n/a | n/a basis | Potatoes yield more food energy per hectare than grains in cool climates and grow in short seasons, which makes them a staple in China, India, Eastern Europe and the Andes. In India they are a winter crop on the Indo-Gangetic plains and are eaten year-round from cold storage. FAOSTAT 2024 | Rice Wheat (bread, chapati) Cassava and sweet potato |
| Processing into frozen fries, chips and dehydrated flakes | n/a | n/a basis | Processors need varieties with high dry matter and low sugars, grown under contract to exact specs. Frozen fries keep for a year and ship worldwide, and chips suit packaged-snack brands. PepsiCo's Frito-Lay and McCain built Indian supply chains on contract farming for this reason. PotatoPro / Hindu BusinessLine (2012) on PepsiCo contract farming; AgroSpectrum, Oct 2026 on McCain | Other snacks (extruded maize, cassava chips) Fresh potatoes cooked at home |
| Seed potatoes for the next crop | n/a | n/a basis | Potatoes are planted from tubers, not true seed, so a large tonnage is held back each season. Certified disease-free seed from cool regions such as the Netherlands or Punjab and the hills commands a premium because viruses build up in farm-saved seed. | True potato seed and minitubers from tissue culture (small share) |
| Potato starch, animal feed and industrial uses | n/a | n/a basis | Starch potatoes grown in the Netherlands, Germany and China yield starch for food, paper and adhesives. Undersized, damaged or surplus potatoes go to cattle and pig feed. | Maize, wheat and cassava starch Feed grains |
From field to user
- Seed multiplication Disease-free seed is bulked up from tissue culture and minitubers over several field generations.
- Planting and growing The world harvested 17.1 Mha of potatoes in 2024, at an average 22.9 t/ha (FAOSTAT).
- Harvest Tubers are lifted mechanically in the US and Europe and largely by hand on Indian smallholdings.
- Storage India's cold-storage capacity was 40.22 Mt in 8,815 stores in June 2025, much of it used to hold the February-March potato harvest for the rest of the year (NCCD via IIR).
- Processing Processing plants make frozen fries, chips, flakes and starch from contracted varieties.
- Trade and retail Fresh potato trade is small and regional; world exports of HS 0701 were worth $6.2 billion in 2023, led by the Netherlands and France (UN Comtrade).
Price movement snapshot 2026-10-25
No public daily or monthly benchmark price for this commodity in the datasets used.
World production 390.4 m tonnes, 2024 Largest producer China 24.28% of worldThree things to know
- China and India together grew nearly two-fifths of the world's potatoes in 2024 (FAOSTAT).
- A 1976 Maine potato default was then the largest in commodity futures history (Blas & Farchy, pdf p. 102).
- World potato output rose from 267 to 390 million tonnes between 1990 and 2024 (FAOSTAT).
Top recent news snapshot 2026-10-25, last 30 days
- "Smaller European potato crop could offer opportunities for Indian exporters"FreshPlaza · 2026-10-14
- Onion prices rise 113% in India while potato prices declineFreshPlaza · 2026-10-13
- Onion prices double as India’s food inflation climbs to 7.74 per centThe New Indian Express · 2026-10-18
- Flooding destroys over 80% of potato crop in CreteFreshPlaza · 2026-10-13
- Moldovan potato prices rise as harvest volumes fall 10–20%FreshPlaza · 2026-10-20