Czech potato growers have just wrapped up an exceptional season, with this year’s harvest reaching around 729,000 tonnes – the highest since 2011. As a result, table potato prices on store shelves have dropped noticeably, often falling below seven Czech crowns per kilogram, a welcome relief for households ahead of Christmas.
For families preparing the traditional Czech Christmas potato salad, this is good news: the key ingredient is both cheap and easy to find. According to Jaroslav Čepl, director of the Potato Research Institute in Havlíčkův Brod, the low prices are also driven by a glut on the European market, where planted areas in major potato countries such as Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium have been growing for years and this season’s weather delivered outstanding yields. High production across Western Europe is now pushing prices down everywhere.
Čepl explains that the current surplus is partly due to potatoes that cannot be stored and must be sold quickly, even below production costs. Some growers are therefore accepting losses on sales, although overall they can still consider the harvest successful, and agronomists stress it is important that this season does not discourage farmers from continuing to grow potatoes. The institute estimates that the average yield this year could exceed 30 tonnes per hectare, one of the highest figures ever recorded in Czech statistics.
When it comes to the Christmas salad, specialists recommend firm, non-floury varieties of cooking type A or AB that hold their shape after boiling. Čepl considers the Czech variety Keřkovské rohlíčky ideal and notes that these potatoes typically appear in supermarket offers in the run-up to the holidays. The institute has also registered a new variety called Valome, suitable both for direct consumption and for fries, and promotes two colourful special varieties, Val Red and Val Blue, which can give the salad an eye-catching look on the festive table.
Despite the abundant harvest, the dish most closely associated with Czech Christmas tables often ends up as waste. A survey by Too Good To Go and research agency STEM/MARK shows that 28 percent of Czech households throw away leftover Christmas food, and potato salad is the item that most frequently lands in the bin, in 52 percent of cases.
The same research reveals that almost half of people prepare more food for Christmas than is actually eaten, a habit rooted in cultural expectations of a generous festive table for family and guests. Eurostat data indicate that more than one million tonnes of food are thrown away in Czechia every year, with the volume rising further during the Christmas period. Even a relatively simple dish like potato salad represents a long chain of costs and resources, from growing and transporting potatoes to storage and home preparation, so when it is discarded, energy, water and time are all wasted.
Experts point out that part of the problem can be reduced through better planning and smarter use of leftovers. Households often do not know how to store salad safely or how to turn it into other meals, so the key step is to realistically estimate how much the family will actually eat and adjust the amount prepared accordingly
