Selling potatoes completely randomly using a bingo ball pit has resulted in the highest sales result ever for the 2023 harvest year. The previous top years 2022 and 2018 have been beaten by a wide margin. The result is a good indicator for the pool prices to be published.
The old price record was set for the 2018 harvest year with an average sales result of €26,34 per 100 kilos. With an average sales price of exactly €30, the past harvest year far exceeded that. The previous season was also not bad with a result of €26,04. It illustrates the special flow of the last two seasons.
This is how the Boerenbusiness potato bingo
To randomly sell the fries potatoes, nine balls are drawn from the bingo ball pit prior to the season. One for each sales moment: a period of six weeks. Each figure corresponds to the trading day on which the potatoes are fictionally sold. The closing quote of the potato futures market on that day is included in the bingo result.
Small dip
The price for the first period (weeks 14 to 19) is also the second lowest over the past marketing season, at €24,70 per 100 kilos. Only between mid-September and the end of October did the result dip even further, to €23,10. That dip is smaller than noticed on the physical market.
At €39,10, the highest result of last season was achieved in February and early March. Before the harvest the sales price was above €30 once, afterward it was three times. Thanks to the relatively stable (and high) level of the futures market, it was relatively easy to make a good result. The futures market has not known any really bad periods.
Other methods score well
How does the bingo result compare with the other sales methods for French fries potatoes? These do not differ far, with bingo (notably) scoring the lowest. With an average price of €32,00 per 100 kilos, the average of the DCA PAT Index is the highest. These are the prices quoted by the four Dutch potato factories and for which they purchased free potatoes and co-delivery kilos. PotatoNL's chip quotation is only 8 cents below that. The average futures market rate is €31,31. The four prices achieved therefore hardly differ from each other.
These data provide a good indication of the pool prices that will be presented at the end of this marketing year. Assuming that the pools sold few or no potatoes during the harvest period, full advantage was taken of the market opportunities. The ending will be particularly interesting, after the settlement of the April contract. Will the price continue to move upward (à la the 2022/23 season) or will it continue at the current level? Given the situation (seed potato shortage, difficulty in expanding acreage, good processing and demand for chips), a significant decrease is not likely.
Prices above contract
The conclusion is that every sales method performed well in the past sales season. With an average contract price of €25 or €27 for Fontane and Innovator on April delivery, the futures market – but also the stock exchange listing – have clearly produced a more positive result. The results for individual growers naturally vary widely, especially when part of the harvest has not been harvested or has suffered from quality problems.
The bingo balls for harvest 2024 have now been drawn and will soon be presented on the website. This will be the sixteenth year that the Boerenbusiness Potato bingo is held.