Belarus Opens Mass Potato Harvest in All Regions, Yield 11 Centners Above Last Year
Belarus has started the mass potato harvest in every region, with 53,000 tonnes lifted from 6% of a 22,000-hectare plan, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Average yield stands at 370 centners per hectare, 11 centners above last season, while the grain campaign has reached 98% of planned area with 9,141,000 tonnes threshed.
Mass potato lifting starts across the country
Belarus has begun the mass potato harvest in all of its regions, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food said on 4 September in its official Telegram channel, in a statement reported by the Belarusian outlet 4esnok.by. “All regions of Belarus have started the mass potato harvest,” the ministry said.
At the time of the report, potatoes had been lifted from 6% of the harvest area — more than 1,000 hectares out of a plan of 22,000 hectares. The volume dug reached 53,000 tonnes. The 6% share indicates a campaign at an early stage, with the bulk of the area still in the ground. The ministry did not break the plan down by category of producer.
Yield running ahead of last season
Average yield stands at 370 centners per hectare, equivalent to 37 tonnes per hectare. That is 11 centners per hectare, or 1.1 tonnes, above the level recorded a year earlier, according to the ministry data cited by 4esnok.by. The centner remains the standard unit in Belarusian farm statistics, with one centner equal to 100 kilograms.
Mogilev region is the current leader of the potato campaign. Almost half of the entire volume harvested so far comes from fields in the Mogilev area, the ministry said. Such concentration is common in the opening days of a campaign, when harvesting speed depends on local planting dates and field conditions. No region-by-region potato volumes were published beyond the Mogilev share.
Grain campaign at 98% of planned area
The potato harvest is opening as the grain campaign approaches its close. Operational data from the ministry show 9,141,000 tonnes of grain including rapeseed threshed in agricultural organisations and peasant farm enterprises. “Crops harvested for grain (including rapeseed, excluding maize) cover an area of 2,452,000 hectares, which is 98% of the total area,” the ministry said. The full planned area is 2,497,000 hectares, leaving roughly 45,000 hectares still to be cut.
- Minsk region — 2,408,000 tonnes threshed
- Grodno region — 1,825,000 tonnes
- Brest region — 1,665,000 tonnes
What the figures cover
The central region traditionally holds first place in the grain rankings, and the ministry again named Minsk region the leader. The three leading regions together account for 5,898,000 tonnes, close to two thirds of the national total reported so far. The grain figure excludes maize, which is harvested later in the season, and rapeseed is counted inside the 9,141,000-tonne total, so the volume of cereals alone is lower.
If the average yield of 370 centners per hectare holds across the full 22,000 hectares, the tracked potato area would deliver in the region of 800,000 tonnes. Yields usually ease as harvesting moves onto later fields, and autumn weather remains the main variable for the remaining 94% of the area. The ministry did not publish a full-season potato output forecast in the statement.
