Ukrainians to harvest more than 20 million tons of potatoes

This year, all categories of farms planted 1.432 million hectares of potatoes. This will allow gathering crop of about 23 million tons, the same it was last year, deputy agricultural policy and food minister Oleksandr Sen said.

"This year, the area of planting potatoes is 1.4 million ha, the same as it was last year. The weather conditions in key regions where it is grown – in the northern and central areas - can be described as satisfactory. This makes possible to expect a yield of potatoes (according to regions) of around 23 million tons," the deputy minister said.

He also noted that annual average consume of potatoes by Ukrainians is only one-third of this amount - 6 million tons. Thus, the proposal of potatoes in the market is sufficient, which will allow citizens to provide the consumer demand.

"Despite the fact that about 97% of the total production of potatoes is grown at personal farms, vegetable and potato storages are taking all the necessary measures for its procurement and storage. This, in turn, makes possible to keep the price of potatoes at the proper level," the deputy minister said.