Adverse climate conditions jeopardized
the performance of the Brazilian potato crop
throughout 2015. Per year, the area devoted
to the vegetable ranges from 100 thousand
to 105 thousand hectares. Total production
reaches from 2.7 to 3.3 million tons. Aver-
age per hectare remains at 29. Agronom-
ic engineer Paulo Popp, agricultural con-
sultant, in Curitiba (PR), explains that these
numbers are realistic with regard to the sec-
tor and rely on precise sources. For 2015, re-
sults above 125 thousand hectares and 3.6
million tons were detected by the Systemat-
ic Survey of Agricultural Production (LSPA,
in the Portuguese acronym), of the Brazilian
Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
According to Popp, the area devoted to
the vegetable dropped from 2% to 3% in
2015. Productivity was very low in all re-
gions and periods due to adverse weather
conditions. The most negative impact came
from El Niño, which was responsible for ex-
cessive and concentration of rainfall in some
regions and, in other regions, drought con-
ditions occurred, along with excessively
warm temperatures all over Brazil. “Exces-
sive precipitation caused the seeds to rot in
the field, stunted plant growth and triggered
fungus outbreaks”, the consultant explains.
There was a shortage of water for irrigation,
No
way
More than 3 million tons of potatoes are produced in Brazil,
most of them in the Southern and Southeastern states
a fact that had been occurring since 2014.
The good performance of the plant also de-
pends on seed quality and sanitary status.
“Year 2015 was very difficult for the po-
tato supply chain and this ended up re-
flecting on the prices”, says Popp. The
South and the Southeast are the leading
producers of potatoes. The two regions
comprise the states of Minas Gerais (more
than one million tons), Paraná, São Pau-
lo and Rio Grande do Sul. Those farmers
whose fields were not affected by the bad
consequences of El Niño reaped good fi-
nancial returns. “It is not by chance that
potatoes were a major villain in the infla-
tion scenario in the Country”, he notes.
For 2016, the expectation is for a re-
peat of the previous year’s planted area,
or even a little bigger. The high prices
practiced in 2015 could encourage the
farmers to expand their plantations”, he
says. Seed sales went up considerably in
the first months of the year.
On the other hand, Popp warns that
the production costs soared a great deal
in 2015, and are supposed to rise even fur-
ther in 2016.The higher value of the dol-
lar, energy for irrigation, fuel and inflation
had a big influence on the costs required
by the production of the vegetable. “Only
farmers in good financial standing will be
able to expand their planted areas”, he
ponders. Demand for potatoes for pro-
cessing purposes, potato chips and shoe-
string fries has been on the decline since
2014. Big processing companies have re-
duced their contracts, whilst small ones
are getting out of the business.
34
Fonte:
LSPA/IBGE 2016
– *Estimativa
Produção brasileira de batata
SUPER PORÇÃO
Super portion
Ano
2015
2016*
1ª, 2ª e 3ª safras (toneladas)
3.659.448 3.580.721
Área total plantada (ha)
124.930 124.930
Produtividade média (kg/ha)
29.899 29.177
BALANÇA COMERCIAL
Trade balance
IMPORTAÇÃO
EXPORTAÇÃO
2014
2015
US$
393.115.494 322.690.063
Kg
321.502.371 311.352.369
2014
2015
US$
4.337.222 4.266.816
Kg
9.387.400 10.876.869
Fonte:
MDIC/Aliceweb
– Elaboração:
Editora Gazeta
