News on Potato Trade from Europe

El cambio climático afecta a la producción de patata: las sucesivas olas de calor han secado la mata antes de tiempo y han dañado la apariencia del tubérculo, lo que dificulta su comercialización.

¿Por qué importar patatas cuando están disponibles en el país? En los Países Bajos, la disponibilidad de patatas se amplía continuamente, gracias al desarrollo de variedades y a la mejora de los métodos de almacenamiento.

The Canary Islands Farmers and Ranchers Association (ASAGA Canarias ASAJA, for its acronym in Spanish) has made a call to encourage consumers to prioritize in their purchases the potato of Canarian origin.

NFU Scotland vice president Andrew Connon has described the post-Brexit cessation of seed exports to Europe as 'purely political and totally unacceptable'.

Sa Pobla cuenta todavía con 45 payeses profesionales en activo. Sin duda, la patata es el cultivo mayoritario y el motor de la economía local, especialmente debido a la exportación de este tubérculo a lugares como Gran Bretaña, receptor por excelencia del tubérculo mallorquín.

A trade row between Brussels and London threatened to erupt tonight after UK ministers banned the import of seed potatoes from EU countries in a victory for Scottish farmers.

It's a good season for import potatoes in the Netherlands. More people are cooking at home. That's undoubtedly contributing to this, as are the 'old' potatoes deteriorating quality.

We can now confirm that INTERPOM will go ahead! From 28 to 30 November 2021, the global potato sector will be able to gather in Kortrijk Xpo, as it used to do in the past.

The Romanian Farmers Club and the Romanian National Potato Federation propose to the authorities the implementation of a National Strategic Potato Plan, to save an economic sector in great difficulty and harmonize the trade balance.

There seems to be little hope for an imminent agreement between the EU and the UK on mutual trade in seed potatoes. If no agreement is reached, there is a good chance that the export of seed potatoes from EU countries to the UK will be resolutely closed on 1 July.

HMRC has now released trade data covering up to the end of February 2021. In January, after the end of the transition period to leave the European Union (EU), we saw some teething issues in exports. Did these continue into February?

As the first month of import and export data of potatoes and potato products after Brexit is in, the AHDB takes a closer look at the data and what they could mean. Across all potato product categories recorded, UK imports and exports have fallen from December with figures at the lowest reported this marketing season.

The sale of potatoes is not entirely disappointing at the moment, observes Felix Molenaar of potato and vegetable wholesaler Molenaar from Haarlem.

VerDi Import in the Netherlands has received their first Nicola potatoes. These arrived from Morocco at the beginning of the month.

The export of potatoes from Mallorca to the United Kingdom and Scandinavia of Lady Christl new potatoes started on Sunday. The centre of this export in Mallorca is the municipality Sa Pobla, where exporters still have some concerns because of Brexit.

Mallorca has been exporting potatoes to the United Kingdom since 1927 and future exports are now guaranteed because the British Government has agreed to change the regulations and allow Mallorcan potatoes to be sold in the British market.

EastFruit analysts predict that Russia may sharply increase the volume of imports of potatoes from Egypt in the 2020/21 season.

AHDB Head of Export Trade Development for Potatoes, Patrick Hughes spoke of the importance of the EU market to seed potato growers and how he was hoping for a rapid resolution to the prohibition on UK exports to the Continent.