Uzbek team Eastfruit reports that in the first ten days of February 2022, in the southernmost region of Uzbekistan - the Surkhandarya region - work was completed on planting open ground potatoes without shelters. Farmers estimate that the area under early potatoes planted in January and early February 2022 has been increased by a third. The landing campaign smoothly passes into the central part of the country.
Accordingly, the first early potatoes in open ground in Uzbekistan will be harvested in the second half of March, but mass harvesting will be carried out in April. Against the backdrop of fears of a shortage of products in the market, Uzbekistan, by the end of 2021, has become one of the world's largest importers of potatoes. Now the situation with the supply has returned to normal and there is not much time left before the harvest.
Potato prices in Uzbekistan, unlike other countries in the region, even slightly decreased in early February 2022. Over the previous two weeks, the average wholesale price for potatoes in Uzbekistan decreased by 20%.
The main reason is good stocks of imported potatoes in storage, which, with the approach of spring, begins to lose commercial qualities. And farmers in the southern regions have already begun harvesting early potatoes from film greenhouses. The planting of this potato was carried out in November-December 2021.
According to selective grower estimates, planting areas for this ultra-early potato remained the same as last year. The process of crop growth is normal, since no weather anomalies were observed in December-February. The yield of ultra-early potatoes is expected to be at the level of previous years. But these potatoes do not play an important role for the mass market, as they are sold at a higher price and in small quantities.
In February, for the first time this season, wholesale prices for potatoes approached the last year's figures. Although prices in February 2021 were significantly higher than in the same month in 2020.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture of Uzbekistan, the total area planted with potatoes in 2021 amounted to 78,2 thousand hectares. The increase in potato planting areas in the south of the country gives reason to believe that as a result, the planting area will increase in the whole country.
Already in April, we can see a further weakening of the relatively high wholesale prices for potatoes in Uzbekistan.