Total area used for potato cultivation is smallest since 2012

• The area used to grow potatoes in the Netherlands has decreased by more than 8 percent in 2026. 
• Area used to grow seed onions has also decreased, following an upward trend that lasted several years.
• A larger area was used to grow cereals, such as wheat and barley.

The area used to cultivate potatoes in the Netherlands has decreased by 8.4 percent in 2026, compared to 2025, to less than 150 thousand hectares. That is the smallest in fourteen years. This decline is linked to the record harvest of 2025, which led to a fall in prices. As a result, many crop farmers have decided to switch to other crops this year. The area used to grow sugar beet has also decreased, and the area used to cultivate seed onions has declined, although not as sharply. Instead, many farmers in the Netherlands have switched to growing more cereals. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this on the basis of provisional figures from the agricultural census.

In 2026, a relatively small area is being used to grow potatoes for consumption (ware potatoes) – 70.2 thousand hectares. The area used for ware potato cultivation reached a peak in 2025, at 82.7 thousand hectares. In 2025, 4.4 million metric tonnes of potatoes were harvested — the largest harvest since 2000.

The area used to grow starch potatoes also declined, by 4.0 percent to 37.7 thousand hectares – the smallest area in thirty years. Starch potatoes are grown in order to extract starch for use in industrial applications or as a binding or thickening agent in food products.

More seed potatoes are now grown than starch potatoes. The area used to grow seed potatoes grew slightly, by 42.1 hectares (0.8 percent). Seed potatoes are grown in order to propagate new potatoes.

Seed onion cultivation reaches a ceiling

The area used to cultivate seed onions has decreased by 1.1 percent this year compared to 2025, to 32.6 thousand hectares. This fall is due to a decrease in the volume of red seed onions (-14.7 percent). Yellow seed onions are being grown in slightly greater quantities once again, with an increase in the area under cultivation of 2.1 percent. The area planted with yellow seed onions reached a record high of 27.4 thousand hectares in 2024. That figure remained at around the same level in 2026, at 27.2 thousand hectares.

At nearly 7 thousand hectares, the area used to grow onion sets has never been higher. Second-year onion sets are grown and harvested in their first year, and then replanted in the spring of the second year. Because the plants have already had a chance to grow, they can be harvested earlier in the second year.

Area used to grow sugar beet has fallen by nearly 12 percent

At 70.1 thousand hectares, the area used to grow sugar beet is 11.9 percent smaller in 2026 than last year. Sugar beet production has been scaled back in 2026 due to surpluses on the European market.

Area used to grow cereals has increased, particularly winter barley

By contrast to the decline in the cultivation of potatoes, onions, and sugar beet, more cereals are being cultivated in 2026. In particular, the area used for barley has increased by 28.1 percent, to nearly 45 thousand hectares.

The cultivation of both winter barley and summer barley has increased. In recent years, arable farmers have increasingly been choosing to grow winter barley: in 2000, 7.7 percent of all barley was sown in the autumn, but by 2026 that figure had risen to 41.7 percent. Winter barley is sown in the autumn and harvested the following year; spring barley is sown in the spring and harvested the same year.

The total area used to cultivate wheat increased by 2.0 percent to 114 thousand hectares.