Czech potato growers are closing out a remarkable season. This year’s harvest is estimated at around 729,000 tonnes, the highest volume since 2011, and the impact is already visible on supermarket shelves. In the run-up to Christmas, table potatoes are often selling for less than seven Czech crowns per kilogram, offering welcome relief to households facing higher prices in many other parts of their festive shopping basket.
For families preparing the traditional Czech Christmas potato salad, the news is especially good: the key ingredient is not only abundant, but exceptionally cheap. According to Jaroslav Čepl, director of the Potato Research Institute in Havlíčkův Brod, the domestic market is being shaped not only by local conditions, but also by a broad European surplus. Planting areas in major potato-producing countries such as Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium have been growing for years, and this season’s favourable weather has delivered excellent yields across Western Europe. High production across the continent is now pushing prices down everywhere, Czechia included.
Behind the low prices, however, lies a more complex picture for farmers. Čepl notes that a significant part of this year’s surplus comes from potatoes that cannot be stored for long periods and therefore must be sold quickly, sometimes even below production costs. Some growers are accepting losses on these lots simply to clear their warehouses. Nevertheless, with average yields potentially exceeding 30 tonnes per hectare – one of the highest figures ever recorded in Czech statistics – most producers can still regard the season as a success. Agronomists warn, though, that the current price slump must not discourage farmers from continuing to grow potatoes in future years, or today’s surplus could turn into tomorrow’s shortage.
Choosing the right potatoes matters not just for farmers’ margins, but also for the quality of the Christmas salad itself. Specialists recommend firm, non-floury varieties of cooking type A or AB, which hold their shape after boiling and mixing with mayonnaise, vegetables and pickles. Čepl points to the Czech variety Keřkovské rohlíčky as particularly well suited to the task, and notes that it regularly appears in supermarket promotions before the holidays. The institute has also registered a newer variety, Valome, designed to perform well both in the kitchen and in the field.
Yet even in a year of plentiful harvests and low prices, part of that carefully grown crop will never be eaten. Potato salad is one of the dishes most likely to be prepared in “just in case” quantities for Christmas and the following public holidays. Families often cook several large bowls to ensure there is enough for guests, only to discover days later that they cannot finish it before the quality deteriorates. Even though potatoes are cheaper than in previous years, throwing away leftover salad still means wasting farmers’ work, energy, water and other inputs that went into the harvest.
Food waste experts point out that abundance and low prices can paradoxically make waste more likely: when ingredients feel inexpensive and unlimited, people are less inclined to plan carefully. In the case of potato salad, simple steps such as weighing ingredients, preparing one batch at a time, or freezing part of the cooked potatoes before mixing them with dressing can help households adjust the quantity to what they will realistically eat. Leftover salad can also be repurposed creatively in the days after Christmas, for example as a filling for baked dishes, rather than being scraped into the bin.
This year’s record harvest shows that Czech agriculture is capable of delivering impressive volumes when weather and agronomy align. For consumers, it brings the rare combination of high quality and low prices right before one of the country’s most important holidays. Whether that success story continues beyond the farm gate will depend in part on what happens in kitchens across the country: if more of those cheap potatoes actually end up on plates instead of in the rubbish, both growers and households will reap the full benefits of an exceptional season.
