Canadian harvested area for potatoes in 2008/09 could fall to 148,000 hectares, more than 11,000 hectares, or 7% below the year earlier level reflecting a combination of lower planted area and harvest problems due to wet weather in Prince Edward Island, Canada’s leading potato producing province.
Post forecasts total Canadian potato production from the 2008 harvested crop (MY2008/09) to reach about 4.70 million metric tons (MMT), 5.4% below 4.97 MMT produced last year.
For MY2008/09, Post forecasts Canadian frozen french fry production to fall to about 1.275 MMT, 2% below a year ago reflecting prospects for reduced supplies of processing potatoes and weaker export market demand particularly in the United States given the general economic downturn.