Study: Shifts in production and consumption of potatoes

Whether they are mashed, scalloped or french fried, potatoes have always been an important part of Canadians' diets. In fact, they are our favourite vegetable.

A new study showed that in 2003, each Canadian consumed on average 113 kilograms of vegetables. About 30% of this consumption was potatoes, well ahead of the next most popular veggies: Lettuce, carrots, onions and tomatoes.

About half of Canada's potato production goes to the fresh market and half to making processed foods such as fries and hash browns, potato chips and other potato products such as potato starch.

Overall, consumption of fresh potatoes has been showing a gradual, but steady decline. Consumption of frozen potato products, mainly french fries, is also going down. On the other hand, Canadians are eating more other processed potato products, such as pressed potato chips and dehydrated products.

The demand for potatoes may be declining because of various diets as well as consumer perceptions about its nutritional value. However, the fact is that they are a healthy food product.

This study examines the history of the potato and recent shifts in markets. It also introduces data from a new experimental series on per capita consumption of potatoes in terms of fresh, frozen, chips and other products at the fresh equivalent, retail and consumer levels.

Potato production is also a key segment of Canada's agriculture industry. In 2003, Canadian potato growers produced a record crop of 5.3 million tonnes worth $882.6 million.

Canadian growers have also opened up an extensive export market for certain processed potato products such as french fries.

In 2004, this export market, mainly south of the border, was worth $902 million. In fact, for the first time last year, just over one-half of Canada's total potato crop was exported, mostly to the United States.

The industry has also undergone a huge transformation within Canada. Farmers in Prince Edward Island still lead the pack when it comes to growing spuds.

However, since the 1990s, more and more production has headed west into the Prairies. In terms of acreage grown, growers in Manitoba have taken over the number two spot from those in New Brunswick.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3446.

The June 2005 issue of the newsletter Vista on the Agri-Food Industry and the Farm Community entitled Potatoes: Changing Production, Changing Consumption (21-004-XIE, free) is now available online. From the Our products and services page, under Browse our Internet publications, choose Free, then Agriculture.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Barbara McLaughlin (902-893-7251; barbara.mclaughlin@statcan.gc.ca), Agriculture Division.