Germany anticipates a potentially record-breaking potato harvest in 2025, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture announced this week. Preliminary official results suggest a harvest of 13.4 million tonnes, marking the strongest outcome in over two decades.
This projected yield represents a 5.3 percent increase compared to the already substantial harvest of 2024 and a significant 17 percent above the multi-year average. The last comparable harvest occurred in the year 2000. Contributing to this positive outlook is a 6.7 percent expansion in planted area compared to the previous year, now reaching 301,000 hectares – a level unseen since the turn of the millennium.
The per-hectare yield is also playing a crucial role in the anticipated record. Currently estimated at around 44 tonnes, this represents a near five percent increase over the multi-year average, although slightly below the excellent result achieved in 2024 (a one percent decrease).
Favorable growing conditions throughout 2025 have underpinned this promising outlook. Following a sufficiently wet winter, a warm and dry spring allowed for planting under optimal timing and conditions. While some regions experienced periods of dryness, the ability to irrigate where possible, coupled with rainfall in July, helped offset these issues, despite increasing disease pressure.
The robust projected harvest is already impacting potato pricing. Producer prices for early potatoes started 2025 at noticeably lower levels than in previous years. Producers are currently receiving roughly a third less for their processing potatoes. Consequently, consumers have observed approximately a 15 percent decrease in the price of table potatoes in supermarkets when compared to August 2024.