In the coming weeks it will be very busy at the Dutch seed potato suppliers with the delivery of seed potatoes. Especially now that the weather forecasts are better, many growers want to get started.
Due to the wetness, planting is not yet possible in many areas. The soil is too wet and too cold, not only in the Netherlands, but also in France, Germany and Belgium.
Schedule in jeopardy?
Director Ferdi Buffen of the German trading house Weuthen: 'Last Saturday 20 mm of rain fell. That is considerably more than predicted. The growers in this area cannot yet enter the land, but I expect them to be planting at full speed on Friday and Saturday. In that case we will be right on schedule.' In the Palatinate, much of the early area has already gone into the ground before the rain. Mostly table potatoes. "By the end of this week, 80 to 85 percent should be planted here," Buffen estimates.
Soil will dry quickly
With the strong easterly wind and the better weather forecasts, the soil should be able to dry quickly. In Belgium and Limburg it will be busy on Friday and Saturday. Not much is happening in the rest of the Netherlands. Some onions, carrots and beets have been sown on the light soils. Although it is not much later than normal, growers are eager to get started. These are busy times for the trading houses.
In six weeks, between mid-March and mid-April, Agrico must deliver approximately 100.000 tons of seed potatoes to the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and England. According to director Jan van Hoogen, the extradition is going very well. 'With the nicer weather coming next week, growers want to have their seed potatoes at home. It is a challenge to get everything into the cars on time. The rain last weekend gave us a little more space, because you can't go faster than hard. But it's going well.'
Agrico supplies record quantities of seed potatoes
Update 28-3: Agrico has indeed set a record. On Tuesday, March 28, it announced that it had shipped 33.400 tons of seed potatoes in week 12. 4.400 tons more than the old record, which dates from spring 2016. "Due to the beautiful spring weather, the pressure to deliver quickly is considerably higher," says Van Hoogen.
The early potatoes are all gone. The focus is now on supplying chip varieties. The problems with shortages in certain varieties due to growth cracks are under control. Van Hoogen does not expect any additional shortages. 'What we expected in terms of quantities is coming true. This is partly because everything has been properly inventoried and agreements have been made with the buyer.'
Margin for alternative solution is small
The delivery of the seed potatoes is going according to plan. 'We are faced with a tight supply. This means that if a batch cannot be delivered at the last minute, for whatever reason, we only have a very small margin to find a solution. But we assume that everything will go according to the plan.'
Gerard Backx of HZPC reports that due to shortages in certain varieties compared to demand, efforts are being made throughout the entire marketing season to ensure that supply and demand match each other. 'That has of course led to intensive discussions this year, but those discussions take place early in the season and not at the end of the season.'
The seed potato house in Joure had to deal with shortages compared to demand, especially with regard to industrial varieties. 'For the varieties for Africa and the Middle East, supply and demand were reasonably balanced. We are experiencing shortages of certain varieties for the fresh market in Europe, but not for all varieties.' The shortages in varieties for the processing industry have arisen due to lower yields during the season on the one hand and greater demand from the industry on the other.