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Despite lower seeded area, harvest and production up in 2024: StatsCan

Production of Canadian potatoes rose from 2023, representing a fourth consecutive record year for the country’s potato crop.

According to numbers from StatsCan released Dec. 12, production in Canada totalled 127.0 million hundredweight (up 0.3 per cent from last year), due to an increase in harvested area. Drivers of that increase were New Brunswick, representing 14.3 per cent growth at 17.0 million hundredweight, and Quebec, at 17.5 per cent growth to 13.7 million hundredweight. Their respective increases were driven by recovery from wet growing conditions in 2023.

Alberta and Manitoba are neck-and-neck for the largest producers of potatoes in Canada at 23.7 per cent and 21.6 per cent of the country’s total respectively. P.E.I. is the third-largest contributor at 20.4 per cent.

Approximately 391,438 acres were seeded, representing a 0.3 per cent decline from 2023. Alberta and Manitoba saw the largest decreases in seeded area at 4.5 per cent and 3 per cent each due to lower demand for processing potatoes. This was partially offset by increases in seeded area on Quebec, Ontario and P.E.I.

Most of the country’s seeded area (98 per cent) was harvested, resulting in an increase in harvest from 2023 despite the year-over-year decrease to the total seeded area. In total, 383,666 acres were harvested thanks to a combination of favourable weather conditions in most of the country and improved growing conditions in Eastern Canada.

Alberta continued to see the highest average yield at 412 hundredweight per acre, although it saw a slight decline (1.8 per cent) from 2023. Manitoba also saw a decline (2.7 per cent) with 362.1 hundredweight per acre. B.C. Saw a more significant decline in average yield (10.7 per cent). New Brunswick and Quebec were the only provinces to experience increased yields, but those yields were up significantly at 9.3 per cent and 10.3 per cent respectively. Nationally, average yield was down 0.2 per cent to 330.9 hundredweight per acre.

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