Canadian growers harvested a record potato crop in 2021, as production rose 18.2per cent year over year to 123.1 million hundredweight, on account of increases in both seeded area and yield.

New Brunswick (+58.3per cent to 18.2 million hundredweight) and Alberta (+5.2 per cent to 24.6 million hundredweight) both reported record production, as seeded areas rose to meet growth in processing demand. Prince Edward Island produced the largest share of Canadian potatoes (23.2 per cent), followed by Alberta (20.0 per cent) and Manitoba (19.6 per cent).

Seeded area was up or unchanged from 2020 in all provinces, reaching 386,309 acres nationally (+7.4 per cent) in 2021. In particular, increases in Alberta (+14.7 per cent), New Brunswick (+9.2 per cent) and Manitoba (+9.1 per cent), were observed, following the expansion of processing facilities, and as demand for processing potatoes returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Favourable weather conditions during the harvest season in most parts of the country allowed Canadian producers to harvest the vast majority (98.9per cent) of the total seeded area. Compared with 2020, harvested area was up 7.4 per cent to 381,912 acres, on par with the increase in seeded area.

Nationally, the average yield increased to 322.2 hundredweight per acre in 2021, up 10.1 [pre cent from the previous year. Favourable growing conditions, as well as increased seeding of higher-yielding processing varieties, helped boost yields in the Eastern provinces.

Meanwhile, in Western Canada, yields generally dropped due to ongoing drought conditions and extreme heat, particularly in Alberta, where yields fell to 363.0 hundredweight per acre (-10.1 per cent). Despite this decrease, Alberta reported the highest average yield across Canada, followed by New Brunswick (+47.4per cent to 350.0 hundredweight per acre) and Prince Edward Island (+33.0per cent to 334.4 hundredweight per acre).