Ireland

práta / potato

Year
2007
Production
501 331 tons
Harvested area
30 380 acres
Yield
16.5 tons/acre

Source: FAOSTAT

With annual consumption estimated at more than 220 lb per person, more potatoes are eaten in Ireland than in most other countries of the world. The potato has been an intimate part of Irish history since its introduction in the early 1700s, when the tuber proved to be ideally suited to the country's cool air and moist soils.

By the 19th century, potatoes supplied 80 percent of people's calorie intake and was a major source of livestock feed. But dependence on the potato proved a double-edged sword: in the 1840s, potato blight destroyed most of Ireland's potato crop, leading to a famine that caused the deaths of one million people and the emigration of millions more.

In 2007, Ireland's 830 potato farmers produced a half a million tons of potatoes, 85 percent being ware potatoes for consumption, and the rest seed potato for replanting.

Further details from the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority