Potato market has its sights set on Belgium

A particularly long period of steady weather ensures that the harvesting of the last potato plots can proceed without any problems. Arable farmers already had a taste of this last week. This week it will be less sunny, but there will not be much rain either. Night temperatures remain around 10 degrees. So working long days is no problem.

Finish line in sight
It doesn't really dry anymore at this time of year. The moisture simply needs to evaporate and it is given plenty of time to do so. In the meantime, arable farmers and contractors are working on their last plots. In the southwest, growers have been catching up. Aviko estimates that 6% still had to be cleared on November 10. The gap to the finish line has now been further reduced.

Plots also still have to be harvested in North Holland, the Noordoostpolder and Northeast Netherlands. Companies will have plenty of time to do this over the next 14 days. Moreover, it is not uncommon in the northeast that potatoes still have to be harvested at the beginning of November. This works fine on light soils.

Belgium is making steady progress
In Belgium and Northern France, growers had to miss harvesting for at least 2 weeks, but work resumed last week. The capacity is high, which is also clearly noticeable in the figures. Insiders estimate that the harvesting will almost be completed by the end of next week. Especially in Wallonia and on the Flemish coast, quite a bit of clearing still needs to be done by the large growers. In France, work is further advanced. Aviko figures amount to 10% still to be harvested at the end of last week. The United Kingdom has also been able to make progress due to improved conditions.

Insiders are positive about the yields and quality. Also from the late cleared plots. In many cases the kilos are not too bad. Reports about the underwater weights are variable. They vary from too low to very high.