At Kyiv’s Stolichnyi market, young potatoes rose in price from 20 to 60 hryvnias per kilogram in one week. By contrast, mature potatoes cost several times less. In addition, nationwide monitoring by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy showed that the price of this staple root vegetable for Ukrainians increased by just 2%.
What explains such a significant price gap, whether it is related to a reduced harvest, and what buyers should expect in the coming months was examined by UNN.
Where potatoes cost 60 hryvnias
According to data from monitoring of the Stolichnyi market, cited by Ukrainian economic publications, on October 7 a kilogram of young potatoes cost an average of 20 hryvnias, while by October 13 it had already reached 60 hryvnias. In six days, the price had risen by 40 hryvnias (that is, by 200%). Sellers’ price tags for this product range from 50 to 80 hryvnias per kilogram.
By contrast, regular potatoes at Stolichnyi cost approximately 12 hryvnias per kilogram, while on October 12 offers ranged from 10 to 13 hryvnias.
What nationwide statistics show
According to the weekly monitoring conducted by the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, as of October 13, potato prices in Ukraine had increased by 2%. This is a moderate change compared with the surge in young potato prices at one marketplace.
A different picture is provided by supermarket monitoring published by the Minfin portal. According to its data, in the first half of October, the price of regular potatoes rose from approximately 16 to 18.6 hryvnias per kilogram. However, it should immediately be noted that this indicator is based on a limited sample of supermarkets and hypermarkets, so it cannot be considered the average price for the entire country.
Economists explain that such discrepancies in statistics from several sources may arise because of different observation methods: wholesale and retail offers, regular and young potatoes, an individual market and nationwide monitoring are not interchangeable indicators. To assess actual price dynamics, it is important to compare the same product, through the same sales channel, and over a comparable period.
Will Ukraine have enough of a potato harvest
The current price situation does not provide grounds to speak of a nationwide potato shortage. On September 14, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotskyi forecast production of approximately 12.5 million tonnes in 2026. According to him, this is enough to meet domestic needs, although the overall harvest estimate is lower than last year’s.
The ministry estimated the amount of potatoes consumed by the population as food at 2–2.5 million tonnes per year. The remainder is used mainly as seed material and feed. Around 400 specialized enterprises are engaged in industrial cultivation on approximately 60,000 hectares. A significant portion of the harvest is grown by households.
Why potato prices can differ so much
A sharp increase in a particular segment does not necessarily indicate a crisis across the entire market. Young potatoes and potatoes intended for long-term storage have different levels of supply and demand. At the end of the young-potato season, even a slight reduction in batches can have a stronger impact on their price tags than on the prices of mass-market produce.
In addition, the final cost of vegetables includes sorting, packaging, logistics, retail expenses, and possible storage losses. During wartime, additional risks include power supply disruptions and rising transportation costs. All of this can affect the final price seen by a homemaker who has gone to a market or supermarket to buy potatoes for her family.
The situation with potatoes in Ukraine: what buyers should expect before winter
The nearest price dynamics will depend on the arrival of produce from the new harvest on the market and on how many potatoes producers place in storage facilities. During the mass sale of the harvested crop, an increase in supply may restrain prices. Later, as the volume of available produce declines, the costs of storing and transporting it will become more significant.
We remind you
As UNN wrote, global food prices reached their highest level since the end of 2022. And one of the reasons is the war in Ukraine.