# Where do potatoes come from?

Source: Commodity Origins, https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/potatoes/ — data JSON: https://commodityorigins.com/data/commodities/potatoes.json — license CC BY 4.0 (upstream data keeps its license; see Sources below).

Potatoes come mainly from China, which produced 94.8 million tonnes in 2024, 24% of the world's 390.3 million tonnes (FAOSTAT). India (15%), Ukraine (5.4%) and United States (4.9%) follow; the top five together supply 54%. The biggest exporter of potatoes (HS 0701) is France (21% of world export value in 2024, CEPII BACI). Potatoes yield more food per hectare than any cereal and keep for months in a cool shed, so they are grown wherever a cool growing season meets a large population, and nearly all of the crop is eaten in the country that grew it.

*A tuber staple that stores well but travels badly, so most of it is eaten in the country that grew it.* Also called: potato, spuds, seed potatoes.

## Where do potatoes come from?

| Rank | Country | Production 2024 (tonnes) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | 94.8 million | 24% |
| 2 | India | 57.1 million | 15% |
| 3 | Ukraine | 21.1 million | 5.4% |
| 4 | United States | 19.1 million | 4.9% |
| 5 | Russia | 18.4 million | 4.7% |
| 6 | Germany | 12.7 million | 3.3% |
| 7 | Bangladesh | 10.6 million | 2.7% |
| 8 | France | 9.2 million | 2.4% |
| 9 | Pakistan | 8.4 million | 2.2% |
| 10 | Egypt | 8.1 million | 2.1% |
| | Rest of world | 0 | 34% |
| | World | 390.3 million | 100% |

Source: FAOSTAT Crops and livestock products (QCL), 2024.

In 2024 China produced 94.8 million tonnes, 24% of the world's 390.3 million tonnes (FAOSTAT). India followed with 15%, then Ukraine (5.4%), United States (4.9%) and Russia (4.7%). The top five account for 54%, 154 countries reported output and 34% came from outside the top ten. World production changed +6% over the ten years to 2024 and +1% on the previous year.

Chinese output is spread across the north and the southwest, India's is a winter crop on the Gangetic plain, and Ukraine, Russia and Belarus grow enormous quantities on smallholdings and household plots. Northwest Europe and the American Pacific Northwest grow fewer tonnes but grow them for factories. The Andes, where the crop was domesticated, still hold thousands of native varieties that never enter trade.

Production and trade have very little to do with each other here. A potato is mostly water, so moving potatoes any distance means paying to move water, and freight soon costs more than the crop is worth. Most of what is grown is eaten within a few hundred kilometers of the field.

## Who exports and imports potatoes?

### Exporters of potatoes, fresh or chilled (HS 0701), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | France | $1.5 billion | 21% |
| 2 | Netherlands | $1.2 billion | 17% |
| 3 | Germany | $903.1 million | 13% |
| 4 | Egypt | $465.7 million | 6.5% |
| 5 | Canada | $400.8 million | 5.6% |
| 6 | United States | $349.2 million | 4.9% |
| 7 | Belgium | $310.9 million | 4.3% |
| 8 | China | $261.4 million | 3.7% |
| 9 | Spain | $220.9 million | 3.1% |
| 10 | United Kingdom | $214.8 million | 3% |
| 11 | Pakistan | $168.8 million | 2.4% |
| 12 | India | $121.1 million | 1.7% |
| 13 | Israel | $93.9 million | 1.3% |
| 14 | Denmark | $89.3 million | 1.2% |
| 15 | Italy | $82.3 million | 1.1% |

### Importers of potatoes, fresh or chilled (HS 0701), 2024

| Rank | Country | Value (US$) | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Belgium | $941.4 million | 13% |
| 2 | Netherlands | $626 million | 8.7% |
| 3 | Spain | $565.5 million | 7.9% |
| 4 | Germany | $382 million | 5.3% |
| 5 | United States | $378.3 million | 5.3% |
| 6 | Italy | $367.8 million | 5.1% |
| 7 | France | $270.5 million | 3.8% |
| 8 | Portugal | $218.7 million | 3.1% |
| 9 | Egypt | $164.6 million | 2.3% |
| 10 | Mexico | $132 million | 1.8% |
| 11 | Greece | $129.8 million | 1.8% |
| 12 | United Kingdom | $115 million | 1.6% |
| 13 | Romania | $112.3 million | 1.6% |
| 14 | Malaysia | $99.5 million | 1.4% |
| 15 | Vietnam | $96.2 million | 1.3% |

Source: CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601).

France was the largest exporter of potatoes (HS 0701) in 2024 with 21% of world export value, ahead of Netherlands (17%), on world trade of $7.2 billion (CEPII BACI). Belgium was the largest importer with 13%.

The fresh trade counted here is short-haul and specialized: early-season crop into neighboring markets, and seed potatoes, which are certified, disease-tested and worth several times a table potato. France, the Netherlands and Germany trade heavily with each other and ship seed to Africa and the Middle East.

Belgium standing as the largest importer is a processing story rather than a consumption one: it buys raw potatoes to fry, freeze and re-export. The larger trades by value are frozen products and starch, both under different codes, and neither appears in the figures above.

## What do potatoes cost?

### How they are priced

There is no world futures market for potatoes and no free public benchmark price, so this site quotes none. Most of the crop never meets a market price at all. Processing potatoes are contracted before planting at a price per tonne, with deductions for undersize, greening, bruising and low dry matter, and seed is sold by variety and certified class.

The free-buy market, where uncontracted potatoes change hands, is a small residue of the crop and swings violently, because demand barely moves with price while supply is fixed once the crop is lifted. Wholesale market reports and national statistical agencies publish those spot prices, and they are the visible reference, but they describe the tail rather than the body of the market.

## What moves the price of potatoes?

### Contracted acreage

Processors contract acreage before planting to match factory capacity, so most of the crop's price is fixed before anything is known about the season. The uncontracted remainder absorbs all of the surprise, which is why free-buy prices can double or halve in a year while contracted growers see no change at all.

### Late blight

Phytophthora infestans destroys foliage in the field and rots tubers in store, spreads in cool wet weather, and evolves past both fungicides and bred-in resistance. Growers spray on calendar and forecast schedules through the season, so a wet summer raises cost and cuts yield at the same time.

### Storage and sprout control

A crop lifted in weeks has to be sold over a year, so storage decides how much reaches the market and when. Tubers must be kept cool enough not to sprout but warm enough that starch does not turn to sugar, and the withdrawal of older sprout suppressants in Europe has pushed growers onto costlier alternatives.

### Frozen fry demand

Demand for frozen fries grows with fast food and freezer ownership, and it is met by a small number of very large factories. Where that capacity is built decides which regions can sell a processing crop at all, and a new plant reshapes contracting in its catchment for years afterward.

### Seed supply and certification

Table and processing crops are grown from certified seed tubers multiplied through several field generations. Disease found in an early generation propagates forward for years, and a phytosanitary finding can close access to a seed-exporting country, which constrains planting far from where the problem arose.

## How are potatoes produced?

Potatoes are grown from seed tubers rather than true seed, so a crop is a clone of its parent. Certified seed begins as disease-free plantlets in tissue culture, becomes minitubers in a screenhouse, and is multiplied through a fixed number of field generations before sale, because virus load rises with each one.

Seed is planted into ridges, which give the tubers loose soil and keep light off them. The crop is irrigated and sprayed against blight through the summer. Before harvest the haulm, the leafy top, is killed off chemically or mechanically so the skins set and the tubers stop growing, then a harvester lifts the ridge, separates soil and stones, and loads the crop.

Tubers are cured for a week or two at higher temperature so wounds heal, then cooled and stored in the dark. Storage temperature depends on destination: colder for table potatoes, warmer for frying and crisping stock, because cold storage builds up sugars that turn fried product dark and bitter.

## What are potatoes used for?

Potatoes are eaten fresh, made into frozen fries and wedges, sliced into crisps, dried into flakes and granules for mash and snack manufacture, and processed for starch. Potato starch goes into food but also into paper, adhesives and textiles, and it is fermented into alcohol.

By-products are substantial. Peel and pulp from processing go to cattle, and starch factories recover potato protein and a concentrated fruit juice used as fertilizer and as a feed ingredient.

## Supply chain and chokepoints

Storage is the whole chain. A crop is lifted in a few weeks and consumed over a year, so the buildings, ventilation and sprout control between those two points decide how much survives and in what condition. A store that runs warm or damp loses a season's crop quietly, over months, rather than in one visible event.

Processing is concentrated in the Low Countries, northern France, the American Pacific Northwest and Canada, in plants sized to a local catchment because raw material cannot travel far. Frozen product then moves worldwide in refrigerated containers, which is how a crop that barely trades in raw form ends up on every continent.

The single points of failure are seed and blight. Seed multiplication is a narrow pipeline in which one disease finding propagates for years, and blight populations shift faster than resistant varieties can be bred, registered and planted.

## Timeline

- 1500s: The potato leaves the Andes. A crop domesticated in the high Andes reached Europe and then the world, becoming the staple that supports the largest production totals today. (https://cipotato.org/potato/potato-facts-and-figures/)
- 1845: Late blight reaches Ireland. A single pathogen lineage destroyed a monoculture staple, killed about a million people and drove as many abroad, and the disease remains the crop's central problem. (https://elifesciences.org/articles/00731)
- 1940s: The first commercially viable frozen french fries are made. Freezing turned a heavy perishable crop into a light, storable, globally traded product, and created the processing demand that shapes potato growing today. (https://www.simplot.com/company/our-founder)
- 1971: The International Potato Center is founded in Lima. A research center at the crop's center of origin took on the genebank and breeding work that supplies varieties to developing-country growers. (https://cipotato.org/about/)
- 1980s: New blight lineages displace the old ones worldwide. Migration of Mexican-origin strains replaced the long-dominant lineage and gave the pathogen the ability to reproduce sexually, making control harder. (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5193357/)
- 2008: The United Nations marks the International Year of the Potato. A crop grown mostly for domestic consumption was pushed onto the food security agenda, prompting expansion programs in Asia and Africa. (https://www.fao.org/agriculture/crops/core-themes/theme/hort-indust-crops/international-year-of-the-potato/en/)
- 2011-07: The potato genome is published. A reference genome gave breeders the tools to work on blight resistance and storage traits in a crop that is slow and awkward to breed conventionally. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21743474/)

## Frequently asked questions

### which country produces the most potatoes

China produced 94.8 million tonnes in 2024, 24% of the world's 390.3 million tonnes (FAOSTAT). India was second with 15%. Both grow overwhelmingly for their own populations, so neither appears near the top of the export table. World output changed +6% over the ten years to 2024.

### why are potatoes not traded much internationally

Because they are heavy, mostly water, and perishable enough that freight costs more than the crop is worth over any distance. World production reached 390.3 million tonnes in 2024 (FAOSTAT) but fresh trade is small and short-haul. What does travel is seed potatoes, frozen fries and starch.

### which country exports the most potatoes

France led exports of potatoes (HS 0701) in 2024 with 21% of world export value, ahead of Netherlands (17%), on world trade of $7.2 billion (CEPII BACI). Much of that is seed potatoes and short-haul trade between neighbors rather than long-distance shipping. Frozen fries and starch move under separate codes and are worth considerably more.

### what caused the irish potato famine

Late blight, caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans, which reached Ireland in 1845 and rotted a crop that much of the population depended on almost exclusively. About a million people died and a million more emigrated. The same disease is still the main threat to potato crops.

### what are seed potatoes

Tubers grown specifically for planting rather than eating. Potatoes are propagated by cloning, so seed must be kept as free of virus and disease as possible. It starts from plantlets in tissue culture and is multiplied through a limited number of field generations under inspection before it is certified and sold.

### how long can potatoes be stored

Most of a year, which is why a crop lifted in a few weeks can be eaten all year round. Tubers are cured so wounds heal, then held cool and dark with sprouting suppressed. The temperature depends on use: colder for table potatoes, warmer for frying stock so sugars do not build up.

## Sources

- FAOSTAT Crops and livestock products (QCL), 2024. License: CC BY 4.0 (FAO Statistical Database Terms of Use). https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL
- CEPII BACI international trade database (HS22, V202601), BACI HS22 V202601, fetched 6 September 2026. License: Etalab Open Licence 2.0. https://www.cepii.fr/CEPII/en/bdd_modele/bdd_modele_item.asp?id=37

Text last reviewed 2026-09-05. Cite as: Commodity Origins, "Where do potatoes come from?", https://commodityorigins.com/commodities/potatoes/.