Tajikistan's Ministry of Agriculture reported on July 10 that potatoes were harvested from 5,735 hectares of land, 2,083 hectares less than the previous year.
The potato yield reached 16.8 tons per hectare, 1.4 tons less than last year. Despite this, the total potato cultivation area increased to 36,508 hectares, which is 1,169 hectares more than in 2022. Experts attribute the decrease in production to the abnormal cold in winter and dust storms in late spring and early summer. As a result, the price of potatoes in Tajikistan is currently SM 6-8 ($0.5 - $0.7) per kilogram, up from SM 4-5 ($0.3-$0.4) last year.
Based on the above data, approximately 97,000 tons of potatoes were grown in the first half of 2023, compared to over 142,000 tons produced in the same period last year. The import of root crops has almost doubled this year, with Tajikistan spending more than $15mn compared to $8mn in the first half of 2022. One person in Tajikistan reportedly needs 92 kg of potatoes per year, but the actual consumption is estimated to be 130 kg per person. The country's total need for potatoes is up to 1.3mn tons.
Tajikistan had highly productive potato farming years in 2013, 2020, and 2021, with over 1mn tons of potatoes produced.
Based on the current rate of potato harvesting in the second half of the year, the total yield is expected to be around 70% of last year's output. This could lead to potatoes being one of Tajikistan's most expensive agricultural products.
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