Canadian potato production, October 2024

Canadian growers harvested a fourth consecutive record potato crop in 2024, as production rose 0.3% year over year in 2024 to 127.0 million hundredweight due to an increase in harvested area. New Brunswick (+14.3% to 17.0 million hundredweight) and Quebec (+17.5% to 13.7 million hundredweight) recorded the largest increases in production, as these provinces recovered from wet growing conditions in 2023. Alberta produced 23.7% of Canadian potatoes in 2024, maintaining its position as the largest potato producer in Canada, followed by Manitoba (21.6%) and Prince Edward Island (20.4%).

Potato production

Source: Table 32-10-358-01.

Seeded area was down 0.3% from 2023 to 391,438 acres nationally in 2024. Alberta (-4.5%) and Manitoba (-3.0%) recorded the largest decreases in seeded area due to lower demand for processing potatoes in these provinces. The decreases in seeded area were partially offset by increases in Quebec (+4.6%), Ontario (+4.1%) and Prince Edward Island (+0.9%).

Favourable weather conditions throughout most parts of Canada during the 2024 harvest season allowed Canadian producers to harvest the vast majority (98.0%) of the total seeded area. Despite the decrease in seeded area, harvested area was up 0.5% to 383,666 acres in 2024, following improved growing conditions in Eastern Canada.

Nationally, the average yield decreased to 330.9 hundredweight per acre in 2024, down 0.2% from the previous year. Alberta (-1.8%) continued to report having the highest average yield, at 412.0 hundredweight per acre in 2024, followed by Manitoba (-2.7% to 362.1 hundredweight per acre) and British Columbia (-10.7% to 329.5 hundredweight per acre). New Brunswick (+9.3%) and Quebec (+10.3%) were the only provinces to experience increased yields in 2024.