The consumption potato area in France has decreased slightly this year. This is calculated by agricultural statistics service Agreste. Fewer starch potatoes are also grown in the country. This move is exceptional. Precisely because growth is still possible in this country and factories are desperate for potatoes.
Rough has announced an initial estimate for various (spring) crops, including ware potatoes. According to the statistics service, the area will amount to 153.000 hectares this year. That is 2.000 hectares less than was cultivated in 2022, but slightly more than the five-year average of 152.500 hectares.
Agreste also sees the area of starch potatoes decrease this year, from 21.000 to 19.000 hectares. That is 17% less than the five-year average.
Distribution
If the figures are correct, it means that potato processors have not motivated growers to grow more potatoes, while they are desperately needed to keep the factories full. Especially now that considerably more capacity has been built on both sides of the border with Belgium. The question is how the distribution of table and chip potatoes will be made this year. A trend towards fewer table potatoes and more French fries or dual-purpose varieties has been visible for some time.
The government figures are in line with the figures used by NEPG. By 2022 they are talking about 156.000 hectares. Agreste makes do with 1.000 hectares less. Between 2012 and 2020, the potato area grew by 44%, after which it remained stable. French potato growers have also experienced difficult years with drought and rising cultivation costs.
More grain, less beets
It was previously known that the area of winter wheat, barley and rapeseed has increased this year. French farmers have clearly opted for grains and rapeseed more often based on the good market prices paid last year. Agreste has not yet calculated what the area of corn will do. The sugar beet area is declining again, to 382.000 hectares. That is the smallest area in fourteen years.
French potato growers are also having to deal with a difficult spring to get the crops in the ground. Until last weekend, only 35% of the potatoes were in the ground, according to Numbers by Aviko Potato. In the previous five years, 90% to 95% of all potatoes had already been planted by early May. Conditions are wet, especially in the coastal areas, and planting could only start at the beginning of May.
On Tuesday, May 9, it also started to rain again in France, with 10 to 20 millimeters of precipitation in the north. It will remain changeable for the next ten days, with a small shower almost every day. That makes planting the potatoes very difficult.
Record high potato price
A longer storage season also ensures that the demand for potatoes continues to increase. RNM kept the chip potato price unchanged last week, at €40 per 100 kilos for Fontane and other varieties. Growers who still have free potatoes to sell are waiting patiently. They know that there are plenty of processors in France - but especially in Belgium - who are eager for potatoes. The RNM table potato price has now broken the record of the 2018 harvest year. Class 1 table potatoes now cost €56. That is €9 more than the price record in the 2018/19 season. Export prices have also increased significantly.
Made at the end of February Boerenbusiness a first analysis for the potato area in the EU-4 this year. We then assumed a maximum of 3% growth. Including for the area in France. If Agreste's figures come true, it will be extremely difficult for European potato processors to grow the potato area. There is great pressure on the land in the Netherlands and Belgium and cultivation is also shrinking in Poland. Only Germany can then show a plus.