The advance of the price on the potato futures market is unstoppable this week. Where the step to €9 was taken last week, the €10 seems to be the next target. What is the reason for this slowly but steadily increasing quotation?
That question is easy to answer: due to the lack of supply on both the physical potato market and the futures market. The thought on the market was that there would be a lot of supply during this period, but this does not seem to be the case. Growers who had determined in advance that they did not want to incur storage costs, therefore switched sooner than most market parties expected. The major cleaning of 'surplus' potatoes took place in November. As a result, there is no supply during this period.
Tenders in the market
Belgian customers in particular are active on the market. There was an offer of €6 for Fontane today (Thursday), but again no volume could be purchased at that price. From Germany there is mainly demand for white-fleshed varieties, but our eastern neighbors also have little supply at lower price levels. At the beginning of this week, tenders were put on the market again, offering €8,50 for Fontane delivery week 17 and €10 for Innovator. Again with little result.
It is increasingly looking like the market is slowly being pushed upwards by this situation. Not because the potatoes are not there, but simply because they are not for sale. Growers have planted what they contracted for the 2020 harvest and have stayed far away from growing free potatoes. Now that the major clean-up campaign in November is creating extra demand for free potatoes, they appear not to be for sale.
Potato futures April 2021 contract
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