Europe: 'Quality of potatoes much better than last year'

The potato market is very successful at the moment. "The demand is at a high level and the prices are good,"says Karel Casteels from Lathouwers &Co. "We didn't expect it at first, but it is a lot busier than last year."He believes that this is due to, amongst other reasons, the poor weather which has improved in the meantime. "I still expect the demand to stay the same."

"The quality of the potatoes is also a lot better than last season,"he continues. "In addition to that, less potatoes were planted. Around 20% less potatoes for consumption were planted this year in Belgium and it's around 11% in Western Europe. Alongside that, the profit per hectare is lower. This means better prices for the growers."

He expects that the potato market will stay stable in the coming weeks. "It will probably increase even more in September once consumers come back from their holidays. As I said earlier, the quality is much better than last year. At that time the new potatoes were not able to be kept very long because they were harvested green."