Confidence among the average grower that the final part of the 2025 potato harvest will turn out well has plummeted to an all-time low. Given the Vavi processing figures from recent months, this is easy to understand. Nevertheless, something remarkable is occurring somewhat more on the fringes of the potato market. Read more about the market for feed potatoes.
Expansion in acreage, good yields, and a fries market that isn't taking off. You are undoubtedly familiar with the ingredients that have led to the malaise in the potato world. This week has even been declared National Potato Week by the No Waste Army to 'save potatoes from waste'.
With such an abundant supply of potatoes, it is not surprising that finding a spot for them was a struggle this season. Feed and digesters are the grower's last resort to get rid of the potatoes.
Forage traders and digesters have had no reason to complain about the supply of potatoes over the past few months, to put it mildly. It is not without reason that, starting from late February/early March, a contribution was requested from arable farmers to sell the potatoes for animal feed.
Signs of change
That is now changing a little. Until a few weeks ago, it was a struggle to find livestock farmers who could supply potatoes. Meanwhile, various fodder traders are reporting 'that they could sell more potatoes than are currently being offered'.
Remarkably, PotatoNL did not release a quotation for feed potatoes last Monday. The DCA Indicative Price for feed potatoes (the price livestock farmers pay for potatoes delivered to the farm) takes a small step up this week.
Where that shift comes from is a bit of a mystery. Some traders maintain that arable farmers are currently busy in the fields and have no time (and probably little inclination) to deliver potatoes for animal feed at this time. According to some, transport may also play a minor role.
Processors are not operating at full speed, but they are of course still doing some work. At the same time, a considerable amount of seed potatoes requiring trailers has been delivered over the past few weeks, and work involving onions or other bulk goods, for example, continues at transport companies.
The fact that the first cut of grass has been mown or will be mown soon may also play a role. This means that livestock farmers now want to order extra potatoes to ensile along with the grass. Incidentally, some traders report that they currently have just enough to supply their regular feed suppliers.
Just wait and see.
Another explanation could be that arable farmers who still have potatoes do not want to pay to dispose of their potatoes for feed and are therefore simply waiting to see what happens. There is something to be said for that, but on the other hand, storage costs naturally continue to accrue. The confidence that prices would rise at the end of the season has also been pretty much shattered by the relatively early spring, insofar as such hope ever existed.
A scenario that may not be likely, but which we will consider nonetheless, is that the largest bulk of potatoes for which there was no buyer has since been taken off the market. It is reasoned very much from the perspective of the arable farmer, but that does not make it impossible.
Given, for example, the inventory figures from Viaverda/Fiwap last week regarding the Belgian potato supply However, it is not logical. These Belgian figures obviously cannot be translated one-to-one to the Netherlands, but it would be strange if the situation here were very different.
Another possibility is that processors, in particular, are currently putting the brakes on the sale of potatoes for animal feed. There are no hard figures, but we are hearing from various sources that processors have reduced their focus on early potatoes and want to continue working with the old crop for longer.
How the (contract) potatoes will hold up heading into the summer is always somewhat uncertain. Of course, a thing or two has already been said about the fact that potatoes are physiologically ahead of other years this year.
It is conceivable that processors are now playing it safe and do not want to risk running out of good potatoes, and are therefore leaving the raw material with the grower so that they can pick out the best batches later. That would mean that a destination would still have to be found later for the potatoes that are rejected.