PotatoNL will provide fireworks for the third time this season. The price of 50 euros for potatoes is well passed and can just be seen in the rear-view mirror, while the market continues to raise clouds of dust and rumble on. For example, it appears that strange leaps are sometimes made due to a lack of a beacon in the market.
It is striking that the PotatoNL quotation committee applies a top of €1 per 2 kilos for both category 60 and category 100, while the ceiling was €5 lower a week earlier. The bottom has also risen further, to €52 and €54.
Fontane and Agria wanted
There is also €60 on the board for Agria. That's not surprising, given past transactions and strong demand this season. Perhaps more striking is that Fontane does make €60, but that the fast food varieties such as Innovator and Markies remain stuck at €55.
The Dutch ranking continues to be ahead of the music in Europe. PCA and Belgapom quote prices of €55 for Fontane, among others. Prices in Germany are also around that level. The French RNM lags considerably behind at €50, although the fact is that there are actually no more free potatoes for sale there. This also applies to the other countries. The number of free ones transactions can be called very poor because the share of free potatoes is scarce.
The PAT index also does not yet contain a price that starts with a 6. Lots are reported there at the beginning of June that fluctuate between €50 and €55, while a price of €45 is even included for small lots.
Market lacks direction
It's no surprise that the market is as hot as the weather. Add it up: a tight harvest in 2022, record-breaking processing, late planting season and then persistent drought. Sufficient ingredients for votes, but the mixer in which these are normally mixed (read: the futures market) is missing today. Technical problems surrounding clearing have made trading virtually impossible. It is precisely in this crucial phase that guidance is needed to give the market shape. If that doesn't happen, then it's a fool's errand, as PotatoNL shows today. In addition, it is impossible to put a 'good' price on the new harvest.
Potato processors still have quite a few weeks to go before they can have access to new potatoes. Closing everything en masse for holidays and maintenance - as is used in the onion sector - is not an option for them. It remains the Belgian processors who have to do everything they can to keep their lines filled. There, planting is only completed at the beginning of June and the new harvest will also arrive later. In short; sufficient basis for the potato price to make even more strange jumps.