These are crucial weeks that can make or break the harvest for the potato fields. Favorable late summer weather produces a lot of regrowth, but higher temperatures put a blow to the already worn-out potato crops. What can we expect?
For the time being, the insiders on the potato market expect an average harvest this year. However, a sharply increased acreage (+18.500 hectares) in the EU-5 ensures that the volume of potatoes is still quite large. This results in an estimated total volume of 27 to 28 million tons. In an extremely negative scenario, however, a volume of 24 million tons is also possible, which just covers the needs of the chip factories and other processors.
New heat wave
The main crop now has about a month of growing days left before the harvest starts in full force. Some European growing areas benefited from some rain showers in the second half of August. In Wallonia, for example, it remains very dry. A reversal in the weather is now causing talk of a new heat wave in parts of Europe. It is precisely the very parched areas that are now dealing with heat again.
In trial harvesting figures Aviko Potato shows a slightly increasing trend that still follows the level of 2016. In week 34, an average gross yield of more than 50 tons per hectare was sampled in the size 40 millimeters upwards. After the rain, the underwater weight has decreased. It is now slowly rising again. The percentage 50 millimeters upwards has increased slightly, towards 80%. This means that the samples can be called coarse, compared to other years.
Figures from Bruwier
Also potato trading house brewer has announced new trial harvesting figures for the main harvest of French fries potatoes. Fontane's yield is the second lowest figure in 1 years, at 6 tons per hectare net. Of that, well 39,7% is coarser than 70 millimeters, with 50 tons in the sizes below. Compared to the 1,4-year average, the level is 5% lower.
The underwater weight of Fontane is 388 grams. With Challenger it is slightly higher: 394 grams. These varieties are now about 25% mature, reports Bruwier. The Challenger variety, which replaces Bintje in the trial harvest, will reach 34 tons per hectare net in week 39,7. This variety is, however, less coarse at 50% in size 50 millimeters upwards. There are absolutely no through-wash in the varieties. Only Bintje shows these problems.
After a warm weekend, it will remain warm in large parts of Europe until Wednesday 28 August. After that, there is more chance of thunderstorms, which also bring cooling. This gives showers a very local character. However, little rain is forecast. A new heat wave, the third this year, is in the making.
Dry regions remain dry
Very high temperatures are again forecast in Northern Germany and Poland. Those regions are already very dry. This also applies to Wallonia, where it also gets warmer than 30 degrees. The Belgian Numbers show a clear difference between Flanders and Wallonia. The southern part received much less water, which means that growth is lagging behind. This situation is not improving with the current weather. After the coming weekend, the weather will cool down to about 20 degrees, but there is no sign of precipitation.
Pierre Lebrun, coordinator of Fiwap, already spoke out last week about the backlog in Wallonia. He says he will no longer be caught. The current weather confirms that statement. In an interview spreekt also Romain Cools, the secretary at Belgapom, about an average potato harvest. He is positive about the coming season, although a lot can still happen up to and including the harvest.