The fact is that the growing season for the new crop has so far been under excellent conditions. This ensures that the old harvest pays the toll in terms of price formation.
Due to the upcoming new potato harvest, processors can prepare for the switch to potato plots that - in addition to being ready for harvesting on time - provide an excellent yield based on a more than five-year average. All this puts a gray veil over the last free potatoes of the 2021 harvest.
It was expected that there would still be quite a bit of room at the end of the 2021/2022 season. The area in the EU-4 countries was smaller than the previous season. The average yield per hectare was average and the processors in Europe were running top. In other words: the market would be clear towards week 27/28. It now appears that this is not the case and the long-term keeper - who still has to sell free potatoes - is left with the baked pears. The current physical market is very weak. The bottom line is that there is essentially no demand.
Does the quote reflect the market?
The current situation in the open potato market where sellers are looking for buyers has been going on for a number of weeks. Processors can apparently run on delivered kilos or potatoes from loyal growers. There are transactions based on € 18 and higher on the PAT transaction list.
If you look at the various stock exchange listings, it seems as if there is little going on, although Belgapom was unable to achieve a listing today on Friday, July 1, for the first time in a long time. Typical was last week's Belgapom, which quoted €20 for Fontane while there were no buyers in the market. Lower supply from the Netherlands could also not be included. Apparently there was a need to take notes!
PotatoNL did record this week, but that must be based on the co-delivery kilos that are paid for the week before. It's fine to put a note on the board, of course. However, if no free potatoes are traded there, this will create a lot of fog in the market, which will lead to accidents. As mentioned, there is no longer a demand for old free potatoes in the Netherlands. Processors report standing around. At the end of the week, a transaction of €12 per 100 kilos for Fontane was even reported; In fact, this says everything about the outcome of the old season.