While the onion supply is rapidly disappearing, it's also dwindling in potatoes. From the very first early French fry potatoes, processors have been bulldozing the supply. The strike at Clarabout in Belgium doesn't make things any easier. So, gloom remains the order of the day, although there are some bright spots in the form of Agria and Innovators.
There are too many potatoes, French fry sales are struggling, and import duties and exchange rates are working against them. In short, there are plenty of challenges. The result is a free market that's on its knees. Only a few varieties can escape the malaise. Agria and Innovator can still wring something out of the market.
Agrias benefit from small-scale sales to peeling companies and exports to Southern Europe. Innovator enjoys sustained demand from the fast-food chain. The latter could potentially yield even more, as there aren't many Innovators. Yields for the variety are lagging behind, which may offer some potential.
Listing Innovator in France
In France, RNM has established an initial price for Innovators. While it's only €3 per tonne, it's a start. Things are already moving more quickly in Germany. Reka-Rheinland attempted to boost the market at the end of September with an initial price of €4 for Innovator. The market stalled somewhat there. This week, some of that has to be sacrificed, as evidenced by the price being lowered to €3.
Agria's price trend is showing a somewhat more favorable trend, although the lower end of the PotatoNL listing dropped slightly this week. For now, suppliers are having to settle for prices of €5 to €10 per 100 kilos. Reka-Rheinland is somewhere in between, at €7 per 100 kilos.
Processors are reluctant to absorb the surplus potato supply. The tougher market has already prompted Agristo to suspend its investment plans for a new factory in France. But daily operations are also experiencing bumps and bruises. Every now and then, factories are shut down, adding to the market's unrest. In Belgium, this was compounded by a strike at Clarebout.
Strikes have been underway at the Nieuwkerke, Warneton, Mouscron, and Dunkirk plants in France since last Thursday. This has significantly impacted processing capacity in Belgium and France. For a long time, the employer, Clarebout, and the unions remained in the trenches, but after a week, a conciliatory meeting was finally held on Thursday evening.
Reconciliation has failed for the time being
Under the leadership of a neutral chair, both parties were given the opportunity to vent their anger. For five hours, they listened to each other. There was mutual respect. Yet, no solution was found. A slight opening was created by a slightly revised proposal from Clarebout, but that too was dismissed without mercy.
The problem is that the 3.000 employees also want to profit from the billions that owner Jan Clarebout is raking in from the sale to the American food giant Simplot. They believe they helped make the company great. They also contributed during the coronavirus pandemic, for example. And they believe that should be appreciated.
A €500 bonus gesture isn't considered sufficient appreciation by employees. A second attempt with a slightly higher bonus for employees with more than ten years of service (€750 for ten years and €1.000 for twenty) also failed to yield results. Most employees have been working here for less than ten years, and the company has seen its strongest growth in the last six or seven years, according to the unions. For them, the offer remains unchanged, and so Clarebout should have known it wouldn't be accepted.
This puts both parties back to square one, and the strike continues. It's a strike of unprecedented scale in the potato processing industry. And it's causing significant damage, particularly to deliveries from the field. How much time is there left to recover? The longer the strike lasts, the more difficult it will become. And it's happening in a market that's already incredibly difficult. For now, there's no end date for the actions at the four factories.
Belgapom is sharing in the malaise. After its initial listing last week, the Belgapom overview remains eerily empty this week. "No listing due to lack of transactions," reads the simple comment below.
No delays at Ecofrost
After gloomy reports from processors in Belgium, French fry manufacturer Ecofrost responded with hope. "There's no delay on our part," the processor said in response to the suspension of investments in French fry production at Agristo. "The cold storage facility is already operational, the packaging lines have been running since early September, and the production lines will start up as planned in the first quarter of 2026. The automated storage facility should be operational by the end of 2026. There's only one way forward!"