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The Potato Sector
Potato arrived late in Africa, around the turn of the 20th century. In recent decades, production has been in continual expansion, rising from 2 million tonnes in 1960 to over 30 million tonnes in 2013.

Potatoes are grown under a wide range of conditions - from irrigated commercial farms in Egypt and South Africa to intensively cultivated tropical highland zones of Eastern and Central Africa, where it is mainly a small farmer's crop.

In some African countries the production of potatoes is growing very rapidly. Algeria more than doubled its potato production in 5 years, and seems to have overtaken Egypt as the #1 producer in Africa in 2013 - at least based on the preliminary FAO estimate for Egypt. Rwanda also almost doubled its potato production in the last 5 years and now ranks in the top 5 potato producing countries of Africa

Top Potato Producing Countries Africa


Source: FAOSTAT (Retrieval Date: January 5, 2019)

Rank Country Potato Production 2017 in tonnes
1 Algeria Algeria 4,606,400
2 埃及 Egypt 4,325,480
3 南非 South Africa 2,450,540
4 Marruecos Morocco 1,924,870
5 坦桑尼亚 Tanzania 1,749,210
6 Kenia Kenya 1,519,870
7 Nigeria Nigeria 1,284,370
8 Malawi Malawi 1,226,600
9 Etiopía Ethiopia 932,701
10 Ruanda Rwanda 846,184

Agricultural Statistics Africa

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Potato Production in 2017: 25,011,800.00 tonnes Aggregate, may include official, semi-official, estimated or calculated data
Potato Area Harvested in 2017: 1,892,630.00 ha Aggregate, may include official, semi-official, estimated or calculated data
Potato Yield in 2017: 132,154.00 hg/ha Calculated data
Sweet Potato Production in 2017: 27,720,800.00 tonnes Aggregate, may include official, semi-official, estimated or calculated data
Sweet Potato Area Harvested in 2017: 4,715,300.00 ha Aggregate, may include official, semi-official, estimated or calculated data
Sweet Potato Yield in 2017: 58,789.00 hg/ha Calculated data
Potato Production in 2016: 24,501,900.00 tonnes Aggregated Data

Consumption Statistics Africa

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Item-consumption: translated
Potatoes (Fresh and Processed), Consumption (Crop Equivalent) in 2011: 18.76 kg/capita/year Calculated data Potatoes (Fresh and Processed)
Sweet Potatoes, Consumption (Crop Equivalent) in 2011: 13.19 kg/capita/year Calculated data Sweet Potatoes
Potatoes (Fresh and Processed), Consumption (Crop Equivalent) in 2010: 19.30 kg/capita/year Calculated data Potatoes (Fresh and Processed)
Sweet Potatoes, Consumption (Crop Equivalent) in 2010: 14.02 kg/capita/year Calculated data Sweet Potatoes
Potatoes (Fresh and Processed), Consumption (Crop Equivalent) in 2009: 17.97 kg/capita/year Calculated data Potatoes (Fresh and Processed)
Sweet Potatoes, Consumption (Crop Equivalent) in 2009: 13.41 kg/capita/year Calculated data Sweet Potatoes
Potatoes (Fresh and Processed), Consumption (Crop Equivalent) in 2008: 18.05 kg/capita/year Calculated data Potatoes (Fresh and Processed)

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