‘The drought has left its mark’: Slovenia’s potato lovers lament low yields

Prekmurje, Slovenia – Lipovci, a village of about 1,000 residents in the flatlands of northeastern Slovenia, transformed into a hub celebrating a beloved national dish.

The air carried a sweet, juicy aroma as it hosted the 26th international festival of roasted potatoes.

Hundreds of people and more than 50 societies were united – farmers and avid potato eaters from across the country, roasting their own versions of this national dish one September morning.

“I’m a potato guy, through and through,” Matjaz Lavric, from the capital, Ljubljana, who has attended the festival for the past 15 years, told Al Jazeera. “Life just isn’t the same without them … When I’m home, potatoes are always on the menu.”

His recipe’s key ingredient is tarragon. “I’d happily eat them as a main course.”

But local potatoes are getting harder to come by.

Estimates by the Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry of Slovenia suggest a loss of between 30 and 90 percent for this year’s potato harvest – the yield having been hit by Europe’s severe droughts.

In 2025, Slovenia produced only about a third of its total potato consumption, a rate that keeps dropping due to other factors including higher fertiliser prices, restrictions on pesticide use and low purchase prices.

Janez Jambrosic, a small farmer from the southern town of Velike Lasce, lost half of his potato harvest this year.

“The drought has left its mark,” he said.

He makes a lighter version of the dish, using vegetable oil instead of pork fat.

Lavric, whose potatoes were dug up from a friend’s farm, said this year’s lot was smaller.

“It took us much longer to peel them,” he said.

Others said the drought also hit their corn yields, used for feedstock, and in some cases wiped them out almost entirely, as well as their wine-making grapes.

“The harvest was maybe a bit worse than in other years,” said Marija Bev from Dobrna in the country’s east.

The drought was most severe in the first half of August. As temperatures soared, the weather hit later potato varieties hardest.

Bev grows potatoes for her family’s needs, and dug hers up at the end of July.

“They’d already survived the worst of the drought by the time we put them in the cellar,” she added.

‘The chips are well and truly down’

The shortages extend far beyond Slovenia.

Analysis released on Thursday by the United Kingdom-based nonprofit Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) suggests that the summer drought is likely to knock about 3.1 million tonnes off the potato harvest in some of the world’s largest exporters, such as Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

“For potato growers on the front line of climate change, the chips are well and truly down,” said the think tank’s food and farming analyst Tom Lancaster.

“As we move into autumn, the impact of the record-breaking summer heat and drought on food and farming becomes clear … As one of Europe’s thirstiest crops, it was inevitable that the potato harvest would be hit hard, and we are starting to see that now in industry yield estimates, down 20 percent in some cases.”

Slovenia’s sector is characterised by small farms that families operate part-time, often passed down through generations.

In 1767, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, who ruled the region at the time, issued a decree on the planting and cultivation of potatoes, a measure farmers initially resisted because they grew potatoes only to feed their livestock.

Now the potato has become so ingrained in local culture that there is even a Slovenian saying: Telling someone they “have potatoes” means they’re lucky.

Petra Molek, from Carinthia, presented two versions of the roasted potatoes alongside other women farmers from her village. One was roasted in pork fat, the other in sausage fat.

“The potatoes we used were dug up two days ago, from her field,” she said, pointing to one of her colleagues. She feels fortunate as the potatoes were good growers, despite the conditions.

“It depends a lot on the type of potato and the location of the field,” she explained.

Marija Kovac, also from Carinthia, said roasted potatoes are a regular feature of the daily menu at home.

“On our farm, we always have roasted potatoes, any day of the week,” she said, handing out paper plates to offer a tasting of their version of the dish.

The gathering, which started as a tongue-in-cheek event in the early 2000s, is held every year in a different location across Slovenia.

Its founders run a society with a mission: To elevate roasted potatoes from their usual side-dish status to a main dish.

The group’s emblem features the potato bug, the growers’ biggest “frenemy” – a killer but also, like the organisers, a potato lover. At one point, attendees sang a hymn praising the national dish. Debates on the taste of the dish buzzed around the stands, alongside the sounds of the accordion.

“We all pretty much know how to make roasted potatoes,” said Bev. “But the main point is to have fun.”