While heat and drought took down crops across southern France, northern Italy, and much of the Northern Hemisphere this year, Japan’s Hokkaido island went the other direction. The region just wrapped its best potato harvest in a decade, and Calbee expects to hit its full 250,000-ton quota of Hokkaido potatoes. Not bad for a place that grows 80% of all Japan’s spuds.
The secret was weather that behaved. Sapporo logged only 4 days above 86°F this year, down from 16 the year before, and steady rainfall kept things on track. Cooler autumn temperatures made the tubers denser and rounder, kept the ground firm for farm machinery, and gave the potatoes a longer storage life. The lack of heavy downpours also kept pests and disease at bay. Hokkaido is virtually the only Northern Hemisphere region to increase production this year, which makes the turnaround from last autumn’s heat-driven slump even sweeter.
For anyone who watches food supply, this one lands close to home: potatoes are chips, fries, and a whole lot of your favorite snacks. A steady 250,000-ton quota means less pressure on potato product prices and a rare piece of positive farming news in a year full of climate setbacks. So what’s the one potato snack you’d stockpile if supplies ever got tight?
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Local Lawton
Local Lawton is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.