Importing potatoes to Poland.
How did the export of potatoes from Poland develop in the 2023/2024 season and the first three months of the 2024/2025 season? Let's look at the relevant data from the GUS for the CN category 070190 - Potatoes, fresh or chilled other than seed potatoes. These are the opposite of the information on potato exports from Poland.
source: own elaboration based on GUS data
Import in the 2023/2024 season (from July to June) was lower than in the two previous years, both overall and in each of the individual months of the campaign. The volume of this import in the 2023/2024 season was 139.4 thousand tons. This is 16 percent less than in the 2022/2023 season and 4 percent less than in the 2021/2022 season.
The value of potatoes imported to Poland in the 2023/2024 season, on the other hand, was 239.8 million PLN. The data here are not as clear-cut as those for volumes. We do have a year-over-year decline, but only by 6 percent, whereas compared to the 2021/2022 season, there is a 25 percent increase.
source: own elaboration based on GUS data
A much more pronounced decrease in potato imports to Poland was noted in the first three months of the 2024/2025 season. The volume here was 11.6 thousand tons, which is 35 percent less year-over-year. Compared to the volume from two years ago, the decrease is as much as 58 percent, and compared to three years ago, there is a 30 percent reduction.
The value of imported potatoes at the beginning of the 2024/2025 season also showed a clear decline. It amounted to 18.0 million PLN. Year-over-year, this represents a 36 percent decrease. Compared to the beginning of the 2022/2023 season, it is 40 percent less. Only in comparison to the same period in the 2021/2022 season do we see a 2 percent increase.
source: own elaboration based on GUS data
Let's now look at the monthly distribution of potato volumes that entered the Polish market from abroad in the 2023/2024 season. As seen in the chart, in six out of twelve months, they were lower than in the previous year and two years earlier. The highest import was in November and December 2023 and in April 2024, surpassing volumes from previous seasons.
On the other hand, the beginning of the 2024/2025 season brought a significantly lower potato import to Poland than in all three previous years. The total quarterly volume from the beginning of the current season is only 1.5 thousand tons less than the amount imported in July 2023 alone.
source: own elaboration based on GUS data
Regarding the prices achieved by imported potatoes in Poland, they were generally higher in the 2023/2024 season than the year before and two years earlier. The exception was in December and January when prices from the 2023/2024 campaign were slightly below those from the same period in the 2022/2023 season.
The current season also brought relatively high prices for potatoes imported to Poland. In July and September, they were even above the high prices from the previous year. Only in August was there a reverse relationship, but in August 2023, the average price of imported potatoes was exceptionally high.
Analyzing the above data and harvest information, it can be predicted that the current season will be the second in a row with generally high potato prices in the European market. This will impact the quantities of potatoes imported into the country, and higher import prices will leave more room for an increase in the prices of our domestic potatoes. Especially if the high export of these vegetables from Poland, as reported on fresh-market.pl yesterday (here), continues.