Potato prices diverge sharply as new-crop and stored potatoes flood markets in many regions

It is once again the time when potatoes hit the market in large volumes. In recent years, whenever this period comes around, China's potato market has shown a diversified pattern, with bothnew-crop potatoes from southern production areas such as Yunnan and Guizhou,andstored potatoes from northern production areas such as Gansu and Inner Mongolia.

The price contest between new and old potatoes has become the focal point. According to analysts, new potato prices this year are higher than in previous years. What is the reason for this? What impact does it have on the sale of stored potatoes?

Right now is the season when potatoes from all over the country are coming onto the market in large volumes. According to reporters, in Qinglin village, Tuanjie township, Guizhou province, villagers harvested early-maturing potatoes last month, nearly a month earlier than in other regions, which made grower Xiong Peifang very happy.

Villager Xiong Peifang: We planted the potatoes just last November, and ours are already mature while others are still planting. We can already sell our potatoes, and the market price is quite good right now, plus ours are early-maturing. Look, they are this big, really good.

Xiong Peifang is a registered poor household in the village. Last year, under the guidance of the local government, he trial-planted three mu of potatoes and sold them for more than 9,000 yuan. Because they came onto the market early this year, they not only sold well but the price rose from one yuan to three yuan, more expensive than ordinary potatoes. This year, he planted more than four mu and expects a net income of 15,000 yuan.

Villager Xiong Peifang: Vendors from Sichuan can haul them away by the truckload, three tonnes, five tonnes, ten tonnes, eight tonnes, it varies. Small farming households also buy a little from us to try something fresh. The economic returns are decent too. For the big vendors, we wholesale to them at a reasonable price of between two yuan and two yuan fifty. For small farming households buying ten jin or eight jin, we can get three or four yuan, it varies. As for sales, we are not worried at all.

Just like Guizhou, at the Lanxiang vegetable market in Jinghe county town, Xinjiang, potatoes also went through an earlier surge. However, with large volumes of goods coming onto the market in a concentrated way, the recent market is not as hot as before.

Distributor Shang Yanli: New potatoes have dropped a bit now, wholesale is three yuan fifty per kilogram, retail is five yuan per kilogram. A while ago new potatoes were all four yuan, four yuan twenty per kilogram wholesale.

Shandong has also entered its peak potato marketing period. Due to two spells of low-temperature weather in April, the market arrival time for Shandong potatoes was delayed by 7-10 days, which led to a price rise from late April to early May.But entering mid-to-late May, potato prices began to slide.

Zhuochuang Information analyst He Tan: As market volumes gradually increase, the seasonal decline in potato prices remains unavoidable. At present, the potato price is 0.8-0.9 yuan/jin for clean field potatoes. This price is at the middle level of the past five years, higher than 2014 and 2017, but lower than 2015 and 2016.

He Tan analyzes that this year the price divergence between new and old potatoes is severe. Around March, China's potato market supply regions showed a diversified pattern, with both new-crop potatoes from the 2018 production season from southern production areas such as Yunnan and Guizhou, and stored potatoes from the 2017 production season from northern production areas such as Gansu and Inner Mongolia.On one side, new potato prices hit a new high, while on the other, stored potato prices hit a five-year low. And the main reason behind this is still the weather.

He Tan: From March to April, the price of old potatoes hit a near five-year low, and around April 10, the opening price of new potatoes also once hit a near three-year low. But as two spells of low-temperature weather passed through in April, potato prices did not fall but rose instead, and new potato prices once hit a relatively high level for the same period in nearly five years. It can be said that the arrival of the two cold air masses created a watershed in the potato market and was the trigger that turned potato prices from falling to rising.

As the weather warms and vegetable supplies become increasingly abundant, vegetable prices show a seasonal decline, and their substitution effect on potato consumption becomes apparent, so the demand side may reduce its consumption demand for potatoes. In addition, because the delayed market arrival led to relatively concentrated supply, He Tan expects potato prices to continue to decline over the next ten days.

He Tan: Although the market arrival time of Shandong's double-film potatoes was delayed this year, actual output has not shown an obvious decrease, and supply is still relatively sufficient. Considering that the current wholesale market conditions are poor and prices even invert relative to production areas, potato prices will still decline over the next 10 days, and the support for the market from putting potatoes into storage is limited. Considering the delayed market arrival of film-mulched potatoes, prices may rebound slightly after entering June.