In 2020, a total of 55.3 million tonnes of potatoes were harvested in the EU. Germany was the largest producer and accounted for 21.2% of EU production, followed by Poland (16.4%), France (15.7%), the Netherlands (12.7%) and Belgium (7.2%).
These five Member States accounted for nearly 75% of the total EU production of potatoes, EuroStat reports.
EU’s main potato products are fries and crisps
Besides exporting and trading raw potatoes for food and seeds, EU also processes its potatoes into four main types of product: frozen potatoes (mainly fries), prepared or preserved potatoes (mostly crisps), dried potatoes, and potato starch.
The overall value of EU processed potato production reached € 9.1 billion in 2019, or 1.6 % of the value of production of the whole European food industry. Frozen chips and crisps were the most significant potato products in terms of production value.
