Household demand for starchy roots in Australia remained strong over 2025, with consumer reliance on this meal staple as a cost-effective solution in everyday meals. Heath-driven cooking occasions underpinned sales of sweet potatoes. Volatile weather placed restrictions on retail supply, placing upward pressure on prices during key trading periods.

Increase in foodservice sales helps to offset the ongoing decline in retail volume sales of starchy roots in 2025. An increase in dining out among locals and rising tourism numbers boost foodservice sales while retail demand is undermined by rising costs, increased demand for convenience and Japan’s shrinking population. Over the forecast period, players could place more focus on pushing “imperfect” produce to help alleviate supply pressures and to reduce prices for consumers.

Potatoes remain a key staple of the local diet while other starchy roots such as cassava and sweet potatoes are gaining relevance as new trends and recipes build interest. New trade agreements and an increasing focus on local production is bringing stability to the supply chain and should ensure that starchy roots remain an affordable staple over the forecast period

Chinese consumers are diversifying their staple food choices, with the nutritional benefits of starchy roots driving an uptick in sales over 2025. Competition from staple foods is evident, encouraging players to enhance value with convenient snack-packs of dried and roasted sweet potatoes, among other solutions.

Starchy roots in Germany remained highly synonymous with potatoes, which overwhelmingly dominated total volume sales at the end of the review period. Germany is regarded as a “potatoes-and-meats” country. However, when it comes to fresh potatoes, per capita volume sales are relatively low in Western Europe, since a lot of the potato-based products consumed in Germany fall outside fresh food coverage or categories.

Starchy roots in India is expected to see a slight decline in total volume sales in 2024. This is purely due to the decline in retail volume sales in the dominant category, potatoes, with all other categories set to see retail volume growth, and foodservice and institutional volumes anticipated to continue to rise across the board. This is partly because although potatoes are filling, their consumption has a reputation for weight gain, and as more consumers in India are focusing on weight manage

Starchy roots saw steady consumption in Thailand in 2024, with this attributed to a stabilisation of production and unit prices. Also, despite economic pressures caused by inflation and the rising cost of living, starchy roots remain a staple food in Thai households. Consumers have also prioritised affordable and filling food options, also supporting steady consumption of these products. However, there has been a shift towards lower-priced varieties like cassava and taro.

In 2024, total volume sales of starchy vegetables increased by 3%, driven by sales of potatoes. Similar to the situation with onions and tomatoes, the Moroccan government imposed a ban on all potato exports in February 2023. However, the ban was lifted on July 10, 2024, with a quota of 1,500 tonnes allowed for export. Morocco remained self-sufficient in potato production, with annual production estimated at around 1.3 million tonnes in 2023. To meet rising demand, the government also permitted i

In 2024, total volumes of starchy roots showed a return to growth in the US, following a brief dip in 2023. While similar to the previous year, institutional and foodservice growth remained low year over year in 2024, retail volumes saw a particularly strong shift in growth, moving from decline in 2023, to the strongest growth rate in 2024. Improvements to retail volumes were in part facilitated by price regulation as supplies stabilised from the previous year. 2023 disruptions to the harvesting

The price of potatoes increased substantially in 2023 and prices continued to rise in 2024, albeit at a slightly more modest pace. Producers of potatoes have faced significant challenges such as a lack of water due to drought, a lack of seeds and a reduction in the cultivated area in Spain. Nonetheless, despite these adversities, sales of potatoes returned to growth in retail volume terms in 2023 and saw stronger growth in 2024 as prices began to stabilise. Potatoes are hugely popular among cons

Starchy roots in Vietnam saw potatoes produced domestically face intensified competition from cheaper variants in 2024. Imported potatoes are mostly from China, are widely available and are priced much lower than local potatoes. While previously Chinese offerings in fruits and vegetables were found mainly in wet markets, they are now rapidly gaining shelf space in modern grocery retail channels, readily available in supermarkets, hypermarkets, convenience stores and high-end stores. In all these

The trend for cooking regularly at home, accelerated by the pandemic, remains prevalent and is positively impacting retail demand for starchy roots in South Africa, especially for potatoes. This is now largely due to the high cost of eating out during times of economic pressure and decreased disposable incomes. High levels of inflation are placing pressure on household budgets, resulting in a greater drive to save money. One of the most effective ways to save is to cook more meals from scratch a

2024 was a relatively good year for potatoes, both at a local and European level, with sales in Italy seeing a return to growth in retail volume terms after a difficult few years. Despite being a profitable year for producers in terms of harvest yields there were modest results. The reason for this was mainly due to the effect of climate change, although it was also partly due to a reduction in sowing and a diversification of investments by farms. The impact of climate change is, however, the mo

Total volume sales of starchy roots fell in France in 2024. Potatoes remain a popular choice amongst French consumers although, increasingly, the demand for processed potato products, which are appreciated for their convenience, is exerting a downward pressure on sales of fresh potatoes. Harvests in 2023 were good and a similar situation was expected in 2024, thanks to an ideal mix of rain and sunny conditions over the summer. Only around 30-35% of French potatoes are grown in irrigated land, so

Total volume sales of starchy roots increased in Mexico in 2024. With the recent strong increase in prices of several fresh food categories, consumers started to trade down and adapted their diets in order to guarantee their calorie intake. In this situation, starchy roots such as potatoes and cassava gained in popularity. Despite the droughts which have affected the whole country for a few years, the resilience of these crops has enabled producers to reach the highest level of production in the

Brazil has been experiencing the impacts of the strong natural phenomena La Ninã and El Niño since 2022, which manifest with opposite effects across the country. While the former brought heavy rains to the Southeast and drought to the South in 2022/2023, the latter, which started in 2023 and continued to have an impact in 2024, inverted the situation. After experiencing heavy rain and historic floods in the first quarter of 2024, this caused Rio Grande do Sul, the most southern state in Brazil,

In 2023, potatoes in the UK faced substantial challenges due to adverse weather conditions, including droughts and floods, compounded by unusually cold and wet weather, even during the summer months. These factors severely impacted production levels, resulting in tighter supplies and double-digit retail price increases, which in turn led to reduced volume sales. This trend of shortages has persisted into 2024, exacerbated by a decline in the total area planted with potatoes, leading to smaller c