The amount of free potatoes in Belgium is only half as large as it was last year. This is apparent from figures from the growers' organizations from Flanders (PCA) and Wallonia (Fiwap).
The grower organizations estimate the consumption potato yield at 3,5 million tons, which is 32% lower than last year. The area was also smaller (-1% to over 94.000 hectares). The yields per hectare amount to 37 tons. However, this does not take into account quality problems, which means that the net yield will be lower.
Due to the low yields, stocks in Belgium amounted to 1 million tons as of November 2,61, which is 33% less than on November 1, 2017. Half of the stock is Fontane. Although sales are generally significantly lower, Fontane's sales are continuing well. Even more free Fontanes were dropped than last year. However, sales of the other free varieties are clearly lagging behind, especially those from Bintje.
Significantly fewer free potatoes
The stock of free potatoes is half as large as last year (800.000 tons), while the stock of contract potatoes is 17% lower (1,8 million tons). It is extra painful for the growers that this season more than 70% of the potatoes were grown under contract, compared to 60% last year.
The yields of the early varieties amounted to 29,1 tons per hectare. Bintje achieved a yield of 33,1 tons per hectare and Fontane achieved 40,7 tons per hectare. The latter strengthened its position in 2017 with an area of 40%. The areas of the Innovator and Challenger varieties also increased to 11,5% and 9% of the total area respectively. It goes without saying that Bintje's acreage has fallen further, to just under 20%.
Silence before the storm?
Potato processing in Belgium has grown rapidly in recent years. The fact that the area has decreased and the very low hectare yields are therefore a serious problem. The market in Belgium is currently calm, but this could well be the calm before the storm.
The Interpom starts on Sunday, November 25, and processors will have to come up with higher contract prices to recruit enough growers. This is to grow potatoes as early as possible, in order to close a possible gap between the old and the new harvest. Last year the area of early potatoes fell sharply (-24%). The figures mentioned are based on experiments with 223 growers in Belgium.