End of planting season gives a jerk to index

The Countus Arable Farm Index seems to be making a remarkable move in April. She went from above 160 points, in one week, to 113.5. Yet this movement is logically explicable.

The prices of wheat and ware potatoes kept almost the same trend in April as in the 2 months before. The price of fodder wheat, for example, remained at around 172 to 175 euros per tonne, approximately 4 euros lower than at the end of March. The ware potato price managed to hold on to a 20 euro plus level in April.   

Soil Levels
The onions are still traded below cost price. At the low point of the market, the third week of April, the prices fluctuated just above zero. However, April closes with slightly higher quotes, due to a brief and violent uptick in demand. As a result, the onion market was able to close 2 euros above the low point in April.

However, the biggest change in April was the seed potato price. After the market for Bintje seed potatoes rose sharply from November 2016, this came to an end at the beginning of February. After a gradual decline until the beginning of April, the market started to fall sharply due to a lack of demand. In the second half of April it was no longer possible to compile a DCA Bintje seed potato quotation due to too few transactions. As a result, the number of points was negatively fed, resulting in a sharp decline in the graph.

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