Promising prospects despite challenges for Brazilian potato farming

Brazilian potato farming has shown promising performance in recent years, with optimistic forecasts for 2024, according to data released by the team at Hortifruti Brasil magazine, a publication by the Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics (Cepea) at ESALQ/USP. With almost two decades of monitoring potato production costs, Cepea notes that, despite facing production difficulties and rising unit costs, 2024 could be one of the best years for the national potato sector. The favorable scenario, which began to take shape in 2019, continues to take hold in 2024. Although production faced challenges in several regions, the supply of potatoes was kept under control, and prices reached record levels in Cepea's historical series, which began in 2001. One of the factors that helped keep prices high was the increase in the area dedicated to potato production for the pre-fried industry, which limited the expansion of supply for the table market. Many producers with greater capital ...