The potato is original from South America, where it was a basic food for the indigenous people. It was not until the XIXth century that Europe was interested in cultivating it intensively.

The main producing country is China, whereas the Netherlands the exports leader.

The origin of the potato seems to be the Andes in South America, and it has been cultivated since the old times in the high plateaus of Chile, Peru and Ecuador.

The first Spanish explorers dedicated a special attention to potatoes, since along with maize it was part of the main food of the indigenous population. They brought them to Spain in the middle of the XIVth century and they were first cultivated with aesthetic purposes more than economic, intending them for cattle feeding.

As time went by, the varieties improved in flavour and size. The people introduced potatoes in their diet, given the huge shortages at that moment.

In short time this culture spreaded to all the European countries. The French, Italian and English people paid more attention to the enormous possibilities that this culture had, which could be produced almost in all climate conditions.

Ireland was the most interested in intensifying its culture, becoming a basic food in the daily diet; it was known as the " poor people’s bread’. It was so important for them that when the ‘mildew’ disease attacked potatoes it was devastating for the crops; thus, there was an exodus of the Irish population towards North America, fleeing from the famine.

The culture did not increase until the XIXth century, thanks to the high consumption of this tuber and the more productive and profitable new varieties.

The potato is a highly consumed product and widely used in the industry, which has lead to its cultivation in great amounts and in every continent.

In Spain, most of the potatoes cultivated are mainly intended for export, specially the early and ultraearly varieties. Thanks to their privileged climate they are the first to offer certain varieties in the Central European markets.

The world production is leaded by Europe, followed closely by Asia, as shown in the following table:

Country	Production (thousand tons)		%
	1998	1999
Africa	8,955	8,933	3
Asia	103,401	105,046	36
Europe	137,892	135,542	45
North America	27,779	28,010	10
Oceania	1,879	1,899	1
South America	13,468	14,899	5
TOTAL	293,374	294,329	100

Source: Fresh Produce Desk Book (2001).

The 10 main producers, along with their production evolution in the last years is shown in the following table:

Country	Production (thousand tons)
	1989-1	1996:1997	1998
China	31,189	53,079	47,639	47,789
Russian Federation	-	38,652	37,040	31,300
Poland	33,247	27,217	20,776	25,949
India	14,944	18,843	25,065	25,065
The United States	17,995	22,618	21,116	21,671
Ukraine	-	18,410	16,701	17,500
Germany	14,057	13,558	12,067	11,712
Bielorrusia	-	10,881	6,942	10,000
The Netherlands	6,947	8,081	7,973	7,704
France	5,213	6,249	6,686	6,200

Source: FAO Production Yearbook (1998).

As it can be appreciated, China is the country with greater production in the world, followed by the Russian Federation and Poland; this is thanks to the good adaptation of potatoes to cold climates.

In Spain, the main producing areas are the Canary Islands, where the ultraearly variety is produced and the Mediterranean coast and Balearic Islands, where the early variety is cultivated.

Concerning exports, the 10 main potato exporters are:

Country	Exports
	Tons 1998	Thousand $ 1998
The Netherlands	1,420,892	354,734
France	1,248,937	255,210
Belgium-Luxembourg	1,179,823	168,969
Germany	930,475	102,577
Canada	631,528	128,942
The United States	304,038	92,967
Italy	278,690	90,686
Spain	230,561	74,068
Egypt	228,467	43,224
Argentina	128,974	14,292

Source: FAO Trade Yearbook (1998).

One can observe that the first export country is the Netherlands, that along the tubers exported for consumption, it exports a great amount of seeds for reproduction.

Concerning exports, the 10 main import countries are:

Country	Imports
	Tons 1998	Thousand $ 1998
The Netherlands	1,339,402	126,911
Belgium-Luxembourg	903,161	146,715
Germany	685,240	181,039
Spain	597,757	139,123
Italy	451,701	101,873
ReinoUnido	442,710	177,666
France	360,597	94,616
Portugal	241,877	543,968
Russian Federation	138,185	26,534
Sri Lanka	109,498	22,655

Source: FAO Trade Yearbook (1998)

These tables show that the north European countries are the main potato importers, being seeds the great part of imports.