About 10% of Dutch seed potatoes still have to be harvested. Yet that is not the main reason for the fact that the supply of seed potatoes and also oversized seed potatoes is limited. While supply is tight, demand appears to be good.
About 15% of the seed potatoes from trading house Agrico still need to be harvested. “This mainly concerns late (french fries) varieties. But that is not a problem, they will figure it out," says Jan van Hoogen, director at the trading house. At HZPC, approximately 95% of the seed potato area has been harvested. “That was out just before the rain came. It is now just a matter of the last pieces that need to be harvested. I assume that this will be possible in the coming days," says Gerard Backx, director at HZPC.
“Most of the harvest is not late and many growers are already sorting and delivering. The fact that harvesting has to be partly delayed due to the weather therefore has only limited consequences for exports. A bigger problem is that a lot of seed potatoes are being downgraded. This means that you have to wait for a follow-up inspection, which has more consequences for the planning. The amount in the higher class becomes much less. That is why good planning and overview is important before parties are designated for shipment,” says Backx.
More excess
The quality of the seed potatoes is generally good. There is less scab than last year. However, a larger part of the seed potatoes is oversized. “The percentage of excess size is approximately 5% higher than last year and therefore reasonably high. But fortunately it is not yet above 20%. As HZPC, we would of course like to have more seed potatoes in the size and less in the upper sizes. After all, customers are not interested in the upper sizes,” says Backx.
Jan van Hoogen also sees more oversized seed potatoes, but says that they easily find their way into the export of consumption potatoes. Traders in consumption potatoes also indicate that there is a lot of demand for oversized seed potatoes, while the supply is small. “We still have little supply of oversized seed potatoes. Growers have little time to sort due to the harvest pressure. In the meantime, sales are going very well. Because there is little supply of oversized seed potatoes, we fill this in with consumption potatoes," says Rick Pronk, buyer of Beemsterboer.
Tight offer
Ab Nieuwkerk from Nieuwkerk potato trade also notices that there is less supply of oversized seed potatoes. “I estimate that most of the seed potatoes have arrived. The lower supply is because the larger sizes are also kept in seed potatoes.” The fact that the supply of seed potatoes is tight is also evident from the Spunta listing in Middenmeer. There the quotation was opened at the high level of €52 per 100 kilos.