The Belgian potato sector suffered a lot from the corona crisis last year. Growers, processors and buyers have been hit by a global lockdown overnight. As a result, the demand from the catering and food service is collapsing. The potato prices on the free market entered a free fall and fell to the level of feed potatoes. That was reinforced by the industry's decision to honor the contracts as agreed, according to Belgapom.
In Belgium, 2020 million tons of potatoes were processed in 5,08, according to figures from Belgapom. That is a decrease of 4% compared to 2019 and the lowest level in 3 years. In the period from 1995 to 2019, processing grew from 500.000 tons to 5,43 million tons.
The Belgian potato sector suffered greatly from the corona crisis last year. Growers, processors and buyers were hit by a global lockdown overnight. As a result, demand from the catering and food service industry collapsed. Potato prices on the open market entered a free fall and fell to the level of feed potatoes. According to Belgapom, this was reinforced by the industry's decision to fulfill the contracts as agreed.
Refrigerated fries hit hard
Sales of frozen fries fell by 100.000 tons (4,5%) to 2,13 million tons in 2020. Proportionally, the impact on chilled fries was greatest with a decrease of 18,7%. The decrease in other products such as puree products, chips, flakes and granules was 2%, from 684.000 tons to 671.000 tons.
The crisis has had significant consequences for the investments made by the manufacturing industry. These fell by 15% in 2020 to €248 million. The workforce has also been cut. In 2019, 5.001 employees were directly employed by the chip factories. In 2020, that number dropped by 16,5% to 4.179 FTEs.
Production decline less steep than the Netherlands and France
The decline in production of Belgian industry is less pronounced than that in the Netherlands and France. According to Belgapom, this is because the Belgian industry focuses more on retail. In addition, Brexit has had a positive effect on exports. As a precaution, more fries were shipped to England at the end of 2020. A correction on exports to England is expected in early 2021.
Recovery expected, challenges remain
Belgapom expects that the market will recover in the second half of 2021 due to vaccination against corona. The question remains how public life will recover. In any case, the sector faces major challenges. Consider the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork strategy. The crisis has also caused national protectionism to flare up. This varies from nationally developed labels to unjustified anti-dumping measures. This seriously hinders international trade.