Potatoes: Stocks
Keeping a watery tuber fresh for months between harvests
What this tab covers How much is left and how much is held. For minerals and energy: reserves, current output, years of supply and recycling for the top five countries. For farm commodities: production, ending stocks and stocks-to-use for the top five producers (USDA, October 2026). It also covers inventories and stockpiles.Recycling
Potatoes are not recycled and no government holds a strategic potato reserve. Private cold storage is the buffer: India had 40.22 Mt of cold-storage capacity in 8,815 stores in June 2025, projected to reach about 44 Mt by 2031 (NCCD via IIR), and much of it holds potatoes from the spring harvest. India's FCI buffer norms do not cover potatoes.
Potatoes are about four-fifths water, which makes them heavy to move and hard to keep. Even so, good stores hold them for many months using ventilation, cool temperatures and sprout inhibitors. Stocks in store are the buffer between harvests, and industry bodies in Europe and North America report them. There is no strategic reserve of note and no world stocks-to-use figure like WASDE's for grains. Seed stocks are the critical carry-over, since a poor seed year limits the next crop.