Inside Potatoes
Contract potatoes stuck to the bone of factories
Belgian potato processors still have a total of more than a million tons of potatoes to collect and pay from growers in this corona crisis. This is apparent from stock figures from the Belgian potato organizations. In addition, more than half a million tons of free potatoes are in storage.
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Choose the subscription that suits youPCA and Fiwap carried out their usual stock measurements on April 1. This shows that on the reference date, 1,71 million tons of potatoes were still in storage with Belgian growers. By far the largest share (980.000 tons) are Fontane's, followed by 430.000 tons of other varieties. Only at the beginning of 2018 was the stock even larger at 1,96 million tons on this date.
Capacity halved
Of this volume, 1,17 million tons are under contract with the potato processors. These potatoes are a burden because processing capacity has been reduced by 30% to 50% due to the lost demand for fries and other potato products. The processors have now been operating at this reduced capacity for a month, which means that 400.000 to 480.000 tons of product have not been processed.
Every week that the capacity is lower, 100.000 to 120.000 tons of potatoes are transferred. Processors hope to be able to process these potatoes in July or August, but that is anything but certain. The brand new trade organization Belpotato.be expects that growers in the country will be left with 750.000 tons of product, which means a loss of €125 million. These tons mainly represent the free kilos.
European damage post
Together with 1 million tons from the Netherlands and 500.000 tons from France, this amounts to 2,25 million tons of potatoes, plus an as yet unknown part from Germany. Good for damage of almost €400 million. The European Commission has now made commitments, but a scheme for Belgian growers is not yet in the pipeline.
Belpotato assumes that processors will meet their obligations. However, if the crisis drags on for longer, the surplus will only increase. In addition, there are additional storage costs that growers have to incur in storage facilities with mechanical cooling. The various organizations hope to be able to sell as many potatoes as possible for human consumption, followed by the destination of animal feed and biogas. Driving back onto land is seen as a last resort, if this is even an option. Actions should encourage the donation of potatoes to food banks and sale as animal feed.
CIPC extension
Fiwap, FWA and Belpotato are trying to obtain an extension of the CIPC license from Denis Ducarme, the Belgian Minister of Agriculture, until July 15. The proposal also calls for the ban to be suspended for a year, because storage areas cannot now be cleaned in time.