Potato Prices as Affected by Demand and Yearly Production: A German Perspective

The demand on the German potato market has been under significant change in the last decades. The use of potatoes has shifted from consumption of table stock potatoes to processed potato products. Pavlista and Feuz (American Journal of Potato Research, 82:339-343, 2005) describe the same development for the U.S. potato market and show that the demand has become more elastic after this shift. We test this hypothesis for the German market and find almost the same impact on the elasticity of demand. However, as the German reunification coincides with the shift in demand, its impact is indistinguishable from the underlying hypothesis.