May 18, 2021Potato imports to US continue to rise
Strong demand for potatoes and potato products and tight domestic supplies continues to drive increases in imports for the current (July 2020-June 2021) marketing year.
For the nine-month period of July through March, total imports were up 9%, led by an 18% increase in chips and a 15% increase in dehydrated potatoes. The two largest categories frozen and fresh potatoes are were 9% and 5% respectively, while seed potato imports were up 14%.
Frozen product from Canada, the largest importer of potatoes to the U.S. with an 86% market share, was up 8%.
Imports from European Union (EU) were up 10%. Within the EU, Belgium imports were up 19%, Germany was up 18% and The Netherlands up 2%. France and Italy were up 131% and 79%, respectively.
The product from the EU is mainly made up of specialty frozen potato products sold at retail plus very low-end product sold to small scale restaurants. This can be seen in the difference in the value per metric ton between Canada $1030 and the EU $874.
— Potatoes USA
