Dutch potato and onion harvests near decade average despite drought

The Netherlands’ 2026 harvest of consumption potatoes and sown onions is expected to be close to its average for the past decade, despite drought, according to preliminary estimates from Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Both crops are down sharply on last year’s record harvests.

CBS estimates gross potato production at 3.5 million tonnes, 17 per cent below 2025. Sown onion production is forecast at 1.5 million tonnes, down 15 per cent. The figures are preliminary: experts estimated yields per hectare, and final harvest figures are due at the end of January 2027.

Last year’s large potato crop left a surplus, CBS says, prompting growers to plant fewer potatoes this year. The area devoted to consumption potatoes fell to 70,300 hectares. Yields are also expected to be lower, at 49.5 tonnes per hectare, nearly 3 per cent below 2025.

For sown onions, the planted area edged down 1 per cent to 32,600 hectares. The expected yield fell more steeply, by 14 per cent to 45.7 tonnes per hectare. Red onion production is forecast to drop by a quarter, partly because the area planted with red onions shrank by 15 per cent.

CBS also expects sugar beet production to fall to 6 million tonnes, nearly 17 per cent lower than last year and below its ten-year average of 6.8 million tonnes. The agency attributes the smaller crop mainly to a reduction in planted area following European measures intended to curb surpluses in the sugar market.

The estimates do not show how much farmland was actually irrigated. CBS says experts found large yield differences between fields that could and could not be irrigated; 33 per cent of arable farmers reported owning irrigation equipment, but hired or borrowed equipment was not included in that figure.