Between 2023 and 2025, potato imports showed an upward trend. In 2023 they totalled 249,660 tonnes, while in 2025 they reached 320,257 tonnes, equivalent to around 8,006 hectares of external production competing in the domestic market.
The increase in imports coincides with a significant reduction in Spanish exports. While 189,312 tonnes were exported in 2023, overseas sales fell to 132,459 tonnes in 2025. In terms of equivalent surface area, this means that more than 1,300 hectares of production that previously found an outlet in international markets are now remaining in the domestic market.
Purchases from France
France is the main supplier to the Spanish market. Particularly noteworthy are French stored potatoes, which reach the market after several months in storage and compete directly with newly harvested Spanish potatoes.
Egypt
Egypt is the main non-EU supplier and accounts for more than 57% of European imports of table potatoes.
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Its supply is very large and largely uncontrolled, which can generate distortions in the market at the beginning of the campaign. Most shipments enter through Italian ports with figures that do not reflect the real volumes. Potatoes from this origin may also pose quarantine risks in a country with a similar climate.
Israel
Potato supply from Israel is limited and orderly. In Spain it acts as a bridge towards the transition to new potatoes at a reasonable price. Culinary quality is better than that of stored potatoes from France, at a time when domestic production is not yet available. This origin typically supplies the market between the second harvest and the early campaigns of Cartagena and Seville.
