News Potatoes
French state cuts back on starch growers
These are tough times for starch cultivation in France, according to the French Ministry of Agriculture. 2022 was a bad year for starch potato growers. To maintain cultivation, Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau has announced a support package for growers to compensate them for the sharply increased production costs.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, starch cultivation has been struggling since the corona pandemic. In 2022, the war in Ukraine came over that. This led to a huge increase in production costs. Fertilizer and fuel in particular became a lot more expensive. In addition, 2022 was also a dry year, which had an effect on the hectare yields of the factory potatoes. And while selling prices for growers increased with other crops, it was different with starch potatoes. Starch growers have already set the price and entered into contractual obligations before the start of the growing season.
Up to 80% of the extra costs reimbursed
As a result, the cost price increase cannot be passed on and is entirely borne by the farmer. In order to keep the starch cultivation and associated processing industry going in the eyes of the French ministry, a support scheme will open from 1 August. In total, a package of €5 million is available for farmers who grow starch potatoes in 2022 and 2023. The aim of the support package is to reimburse up to 80% of the additional costs incurred by growers. Fesneau's plans were already approved by the European Commission at the beginning of July.
Jurphaas Lugtenburg
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