The province had a higher yield than P.E.I.
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
For the second time in three years, Alberta is Canada’s top potato-producing province.
In 2022, Alberta farmers produced 26.8 million hundredweight of spuds, Stats Canada data shows.
This includes an average yield of 375.9 hundredweight per acre.
Farmers in P.E.I., which is usually Canada’s potato capital, produced 26.6 million hundredweight in 2022.
The average yield in P.E.I. was 324.8 hundredweight per acre last year.
Manitoba farmers rounded out the top three with 26.1 million hundredweight of potatoes produced in 2022.
Potato fields in Manitoba averaged a yield of 329.8 hundredweight.
Alberta farmers also produced the most potatoes in Canada in 2020.
That year, farmers in the province produced 23.4 million hundredweight of spuds and averaged 404 hundredweight per acre.
Also in 2020, Manitoba farmers edged out P.E.I production with 24 million hundredweight and an average potato yield of 337.1 hundredweight per acre.
P.E.I. potato farmers produced 21 million hundredweight of potatoes in 2020 with an average yield of 251.5 hundredweight per acre to round out the top three.
2021 was the most recent year when P.E.I. last wore Canada’s potato crown.
That year, farmers in the province produced 27.2 million hundredweight of potatoes and averaged a yield of 322 hundredweight per acre.
Manitoba producers harvested 24.9 million hundredweight of potatoes that year with fields averaging 319 hundredweight per acre.
And Alberta growers rounded out the top three in 2021.
Farmers there produced 24.6 million hundredweight of spuds. But the fields had a higher average yield than Manitoba and P.E.I., averaging 363 hundredweight per acre.
Overall, Canadian farmers produced 122,970 million hundredweight of potatoes in 2022.
This represents a slight increase from 122,014 million hundredweight in 2021.