News in potato postharvest knowledge

Potato is one of the pillars of global food security; originating in the Andes, it is now the third most important food crop in the world for human consumption, surpassed only by rice and wheat. 

Unlike other carbohydrates, it provides vitamin C, potassium, vitamin B6, and a surprising amount of high-quality protein compared to other tubers. It´s an efficient crop; it produces more food per unit of water than most cereals.

The cultivation of Solanum tuberosum has evolved dramatically from the Inca terraces to today's precision agriculture. Although we associate the potato with Europe, today Asia is the world's largest producer.

China and India are the largest producers by volume, primarily supplying their domestic markets. Northern Europe (Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium) is the heart of commercial and industrial production.

The year 2025 saw a 6.9% increase in EU-27 production compared to 2024. This surplus led to a drop in farmgate prices, in some cases falling below production costs. Although the cultivated area grew by 5.5% in Europe, extreme weather conditions in the south (droughts followed by torrential rains) contrasted sharply with the high yields in the center of the continent.

Starting many years ago, the consumption evolved from traditional to industrial. Fresh consumption remains stable in rural areas, but is decreasing in urban environments due to preparation time.

Processing results in frozen fries, chips, and instant mashed potatoes.

Potatoes produced in the United States are primarily destined for the processing market (approximately 70%), followed by the fresh market (25%), with the remainder going to seed and animal feed production.

Of the processing market, most potatoes are used for frozen french fries, followed by potato chips and shoestrings, dehydrated starch and flour, and other products (data from USDA-NASS (2023) cited by Ayush K. Sharma et al.).

The potato is also used to extract starch for the paper, textile, and bioplastics industries.

The following are advances in post-harvest handling based on work published during 2025.

Contents

• Control of postharvest quality and preharvest factors influencing it
• Nanotechnology to improve field and postharvest behaviour
• Field and postharvest positive effects of Be and Zn combined applied through foliar application
• Farmyard manure and optimal phosphorus fertilization can significantly enhance seed potato quality, reduce postharvest losses, and boost marketability
• Importance of preventing physical damage to potatoes  to mitigate the risk of pathogen contamination: Periderm cells, apoplast, and xylem are internalization ways for pathogens 
• BA activated the cytokinin signaling pathway in potato tubers
• Control of Fusarium Dry Rot achieves the best results through biocontrol agents  & fungicide 
• Fusarium species in Kyrgyztan, with F. sambucinum showig the highest overall virulence
• Overview about potato diseases, and storage in India
• Potato postharvest spoilage predominantly occurs during the wet seasons
• Field management in postharvest quality 
• Optical propagation and dielectric properties to study quality
• Lenticel morphology and spatial distribution determine potato tuber gas exchange 
• Potato microbiota potential tool to help sprout inhibition and disease management
• Suppression of sprouting in seed potatoes
• Microbiome to control potato sprouting
• Magnetic fields to preserve and increase potato nutritional quality
• Potato grading
• Basis for a composite film
• Sodium nitroprusside (SNP) improves storage quality of fresh cut purple potatoes
• More research
  • Extensión in District Okara, Pakistan
  • Mitigating postharvest losses in India
  • Valorization options for small non-marketable potatoes

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