The potato processing industry took a big step up in September. The processing figure for this month is even close to last year. The question is what the second lockdown will do with the processing figures.
The processors processed 318.700 tons of potatoes into fries and other potato products in September. This is evident from the current processing figures that Vavi publishes every month. This means that the processing figure is approximately 13% higher than the level of last month. In that month, 278.700 tons of potatoes were processed.
Big step up
The processing figure for September is actually close to last season. Then 345.800 tons of potatoes were processed in the same month. The significant step up becomes even clearer when we compare the difference between August and September. Last season the difference between those two months amounted to 2 tons, while this year a difference of no less than 800 tons is visible. Some recovery after the first lockdown could be a reason for this, although it now remains to be seen what the second lockdown will do to the processing figures.
The processing figure over the past 12 months currently amounts to 3,47 million tons, of which 1,56 million tons have been processed into pre-fried products and 300.900 tons into other potato products. In the 12 months before that (October 2018 to September 2019), 3,85 million tons of potatoes were processed.
More than 38% was imported
Of the total volume, 122.700 tons (38,5%) come from abroad. In percentage terms, this is more than last season, because in that year 37% of the processed volume was imported. Since the total processing was higher in that season, more tons were involved: 127.800 tons. Last month, a total of 146.600 tons were used for the production of pre-fried fries and 25.000 tons of potatoes were processed into other products.