Europe will face potato shortages and rising prices due to heat

MOSCOW, September 17 - RIA Novosti. Europe will face potato shortages and rising prices after a summer of heat waves that, according to an analysis, led to the loss of almost 7 million tons of the crop, the Financial Times newspaper reports, citing a forecast by the non-profit Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).

In early September, in a statement received by RIA Novosti from the association of farmers and agricultural cooperatives Copa-Cogeca, European farmers warned the European Commission of the threat of food shortages and price hikes in the EU in the coming months due to large-scale crop and feed losses after the summer heat.

"Europe is facing a potato shortage... Some 3.1 million tonnes of potatoes, worth between 400 and 620 million euros, were lost due to extreme weather conditions... Added to this are some 3.6 million tonnes that were not grown at all this year after a record harvest in 2025," the newspaper writes.

Thus, according to the ECIU forecast, the potato harvest in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, the main European countries for this indicator, may decline from a record 27.3 million tons last year to 19.5-20.5 million tons this year.

If these estimates are confirmed, then in just one year Europe will move to a record minimum of potatoes grown from a record high, when excess supply brought the benchmark potato price in Belgium to almost zero, the Financial Times clarifies. Farmers then threw away unclaimed potatoes, gave them away for free, burned them, or fed them to livestock.

US import tariffs and increased competition from Asia have also put pressure on European exports of frozen French fries, causing farmers to reduce plantings, the newspaper reported.

It is noted that the heat also affected the size of the potatoes. Processors typically want tubers larger than 50 millimeters in diameter, but in some fields the majority of the crop is under 40 millimeters. Manufacturers have already begun to relax the requirements for raw materials, so French fries may become smaller, farmers share with the newspaper.

Prices on the free market have already risen sharply, reports the Financial Times. New crop potatoes for processing in some European countries are sold up to 250 euros per ton (about 30 euros a year earlier.) In France, by September 3, table potatoes had risen in price to 520 euros per ton from 310.