Uruguay

Uruguay has a well-established potato industry and potato is the country’s principal horticultural crop in terms of production, value and consumption. The crop is grown across several regions, with the southern production area, particularly San José, historically accounting for the largest share of cultivated area. Other important production zones include the eastern and northern parts of the country. Uruguay’s climate allows potatoes to be produced in more than one annual cycle, with planting periods extending from approximately July to March depending on location, temperature and photoperiod.

Potato production is traditionally concentrated in autumn and spring, although the eastern and northern regions allow producers to adjust planting and harvesting periods and supply fresh potatoes to the domestic market over a longer season. Irrigation has become an important production technology, particularly because temperature extremes and water availability can affect yield and tuber development. Uruguay has also developed local potato cultivars through the breeding programme of the National Agricultural Research Institute (INIA), with breeding objectives including adaptation to local conditions, disease resistance and suitability for different market uses.

The Uruguayan potato sector supplies mainly the domestic fresh market, while changing consumption patterns have increasingly affected production. Recent INIA research reports a substantial long-term decline in potato area and production, associated partly with the growing replacement of fresh potatoes by imported processed potato products. At the same time, improving access to quality seed remains an important issue, particularly for smaller producers. INIA has therefore focused on locally adapted cultivars and seed multiplication systems, including varieties such as INIA Daymán, INIA Guaviyú and INIA Arequita, alongside imported cultivars.

Potato cultivation became an important component of Uruguay’s horticultural sector as the crop developed into a major source of food and farm income. By the twentieth century, potato production was established in several parts of the country, with production systems adapting to Uruguay’s relatively mild climate and allowing two principal growing cycles. Research and variety introduction became increasingly important as producers sought cultivars suited to local growing conditions. Records from the 1970s, for example, document trials involving potato varieties originating from the Netherlands, Poland and Germany.

A major development came with the establishment of the INIA potato breeding programme in 1980. The programme was designed to select and develop cultivars better adapted to Uruguay’s production conditions, including materials with characteristics suitable for the country’s double cropping system and improved responses to important diseases. National breeding has subsequently produced cultivars such as INIA Daymán, INIA Guaviyú and INIA Arequita, helping diversify the varietal base beyond the predominantly imported cultivars traditionally used by growers. More recently, research has focused on strengthening domestic seed production, improving cultivar differentiation for fresh and industrial markets and addressing the continuing decline in domestic potato production.