Potatoes New Zealand

Industry Profile — Statistics

Potatoes New Zealand funding

Potatoes New Zealand is funded through a commodity levy (0.75%) on potatoes at first point of sale. These funds are allocated to promotion, research, product group activities (26.6% each) and to Horticulture New Zealand (20%) for representation on whole-of- industry issues such as the Resource Management Act, Regional and District Plans, Environment Standards, Food Safety, Biosecurity, Transport, Labour and a raft of other issues.

Export statistics

Potato export statistics are available here. Download a detailed table of New Zealand's 2003 - 2007 fresh vegetable export statistics here. Download a graph showing a summary of New Zealand's 1996 - 2006 fresh vegetable export statistics here.

Potato production - Area in production (Ha)

The potato industry is strong and production continues to expand, largely in response to demand for processed potato products for consumption domestically and for export. The latest potato acreage surevy data (from 2006 - 2008) can be viewed here.

Year	Seed	Fresh	Process	Total
1993	1,355	NK	NK	9,250
1994	1,258	3,707	4,440	9,405
1995	1,249	5,043	4,456	10,748
1996	1,502	4,554	4,564	10,620
1997	1,336	4,465	4,152	9,953
1998	1,140	5,238	4,109	10,487
1999	1,453	5,311	5,319	12,083
2000	1,306	4,085	5,250	10,642
2001	1,169	4,432	4,944	10,545
2002	1,192	4,384	5,448	11,024
2003	1,157	4,503	5,865	11,525
2004	1,262	4,274	6,181	11,717
2005	1,276	3,279	6,734	11,289
2006	1,259	3,392	5,883	10,534

Potato Area Survey 2006 (ha)

Production is mainly in the Canterbury, Pukekohe, and Manawatu areas, but there is potato production in most parts of New Zealand.

	Total Area	Seed Area	Brushed Area	Washed Area	Process Area
NORTH ISLAND
Northland	0	0	0	0	0
Auckland	2,801.17	70	962.24	459.10	1309.83
Waikato	148	0	111	19	18
Bay Of Plenty	0	0	0	0	0
Gisborne	56	34	22	0	0
Hawkes Bay	302.75	0	23.75	0	279
Taranaki/ Wanganui	550.9	10	44.9	196	300
Wellington/ Manawatu	1,291.75	74.50	326.85	158.40	732
North Island Total	5,150.57	188.50	1,490.74	832.50	2,638.83
SOUTH ISLAND
Nelson/Marlborough	16.3	1	15.3	0	0
Canterbury/West Coast	5,114.22	1,069.50	487.62	339.6	3217.5
Otago/Southland	252.95	0.50	36.25	189.20	27
South Island Total	5,383.47	1071	539.17	528.80	3,244.50
TOTAL NEW ZEALAND	10,534.04	1,259.50	2,029.91	1,361.30	5883.33

Household Economic Survey 2007

A survey of household economic statistics for the year ending June 2007 has just been released by Statistics New Zealand, and it was found that potatoes were ranked second in the listing of household expenditure on fresh vegetables. According to this survey New Zealand households purchased approximately $86.3 million of potatoes in 2007, a figure which was outdone only by tomatoes ($96.2 million). Potato purchases have increased by 5.5% since the last survey in 2004.

One interesting finding was that expenditure on fresh potatoes was greatest in households with an income of $98,800 - $131,299 per annum, with this group spending approximately $1.40 per week on fresh potatoes. Couples with two or more dependent children were the biggest fresh potato consumers, while single parents and those living alone purchased the least potatoes.

Frozen potato products were also a significant expenditure item for many families, with families spending a total of $39.4 million on frozen potato products.

Click here to download the survey results.