Current figures show that the total German potato stock is 2,7 million tons, compared to 4,2 million tons last season. That is a decrease of no less than 35%.
If the stock of December 2018 is compared with a number of previous years, it appears that we have to go back to December 2012. In that year there was also a small potato stock compared to other years (3,2 million tons). The fact is, however, that the stock has not been this low since the reunification in Germany.
In proportion, the harvest, and therefore the stock, is the most disappointing in Lower Saxony. This is the state that is (very) important for French fries processing. While the stock in Lower Saxony was estimated at 2017 million tons in December 2,4, this season it is 1 million tons less. In the 2012 harvest year, the potato supply in Lower Saxony amounted to 1,7 million tons.
Need potatoes
The potato requirement for the rest of the season would amount to 3,7 million tons, which means that there a shortage is of 1 million tons. In short: it is difficult to have sufficient coverage for the coming months. The chip processors normally need 1,9 million tons in the remaining months of the season.
To keep the chimneys smoking, German processors have to do even more beyond national borders to buy. However, there is also a huge shortage of raw materials in the Netherlands and Belgium. Poland is always an option to buy potatoes. However, the fact that this can be done for much less money has been a thing of the past for quite some time now.
Final harvest
The final German harvest figure for 2018 has been 8,9 million tons, which is 2,8 million tons (25%) less than in the 2017 crop year. The last time the total German potato harvest was lower than 10 million tons was in 2013 (9,7 million tons). In that harvest year there was a lot of damage in the south of Germany due to excessive rainfall. The same applied to the most important growing areas in Austria and the Czech Republic.