Undertone of the futures market is a bit more friendly

The futures market has shown an increase after the turn of the year to €5 to €5,10 for the April 2018 contract. The June quotation even briefly touched the €7 level this week. It is mainly sellers who seem to be reducing their position somewhat with a profit and thus placing the demand on April.

Some speculative demand would cause an increase for the June contracts, which for the time being has a top end at €7. In any case, it is clear that there are sufficient potatoes (in other words: supply) for the coming months. 

Quality problems
The reports of quality problems are currently resulting in an extra volume of potatoes with an alternative destination and/or potatoes that are processed early. This mainly concerns rot, hollow and too low underwater weight (OWG). Disapproval is therefore the order of the day. However, with the 'spill' there could be some hope for the end of the season (May/June/July).

early potatoes
The contract for early potatoes is still at a low level. Processors assume that they will have sufficient raw materials available until August (from the 2017 harvest). In theory (i.e. numerically) this should also be possible. However, it remains to be seen whether the quality of the potatoes will allow this in due course.

Who doesn't remember the end of the 2014/2015 season (June 2015)? Then after week 22 the market rose in a short time from an average of less than €4 per 100 kilos to €7, €10 and even €14 per 100 kilos in July. The sharp increase was the result of a late spring and potato spills. It is important to mention that the futures market settles this season before week 23, already on June 1 (week 22).After the turn of the year, the futures market showed an increase to €5 to €5,10.The June contract even touched €7 this week.

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