Potato prices in the Hungarian city of Kecskemét range between HUF 120 and 210 per kilo (0.39-0.68 Euro), while last year they stood at around HUF 70 (0.22 Euro). There have been similar increases in many retailers, according to representatives consulted by the newspaper Baon.hu. Overall, prices are between 1.5 and 2 times higher than last year.
The reason for this, according to Mr Szabo Istvan, of the National Potato Marketing Board, is that the country's harvest in 2015, which amounted to 350,000 tonnes, has been 28 percent smaller than in the previous year and the yields have been 33% lower than the average of the period between 2010 and 2014. The average yield per hectare last year was of 24-25 tonnes, which is 11.3 percent less than in the previous year.
According to CSO data, the price of potatoes has increased by 73 per cent compared to the lowest recorded in December 2014.
Also worth noting is that, over the past decade, Hungary's per capita consumption has stood at 58-60 kilograms, while in 1960, this figure stood at an average of 97.6 kilograms per person.
