The President of Potatoes USA says worldwide demand for the tuber is outpacing production.
Blair Richardson told the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers conference that 20 years ago, the U.S. controlled about 55% of the global potato export market, but now, it’s closer to 23%. “We’ve lost a lot of market share, but during that period of time, we’ve almost doubled our exports of potatoes, so we’ve increased our exports, lost massive market share, and what that means is demand for our products is growing more rapidly around the world than we can keep up with.”
And, he says despite massive increases in European potato production, they can’t keep up with demand.