News on Potatoes for processing from Belgium

No one could miss it in the media last year: the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Belgian potato sector hard.

The NEPG (North-Western European Potato Growers) estimates that the total harvest will be 27.9 million tons this season if all potatoes in the ground will be indeed harvested. The harvest is later than usual with all the risks involved.

Last week, the North-western European Potato Growers (NEPG) association announced their harvest estimate for the 2020/2021 season.

The foodservice demand for potato products has dropped with 50 – 60 % and the export markets have lost their potential, so the world-wide potato-processing industry has reduced their capacity and need for raw material. More than 2 million tons will probably not been processed in the NEPG mainland potato countries only.

Last year, despite the difficult growing conditions as a result of the extreme heat and drought during both the 2018-2019 and the 2019-2020 seasons, the Belgian potato-processing industry once again improved the record for processed potatoes.

Due to COVID-19 the free market of potatoes has completely collapsed. The PCA/Fiwap and the Belgapom price quotation has been suspended because of a lack of transactions on the free market of potatoes.

On 4 and 5 September the international potato fair PotatoEurope 2019 will take place in
Tournai. That the fair continues to grow is demonstrated by the fact that there are almost
20% more exhibitors from 17 different countries.

The potato cannot be burned from the news. This week it turned out that Belgian growers are settling in northern France because the Belgian area is almost exhausted.

Based upon a provisional estimation of the NEPG (North-Western European Potato Growers) the area in the 5 largest potato countries increased to 609.000 ha of consumption potatoes, a 2.4% increase.

Since the humble precursor to modern potato first domesticated in Peru 10,000 years ago, the tuber has branched off into thousands of different varieties.

RMA Techniek has combined their capabilities in robotics, smart engineering and experience in the potato processing industry in a unique way: the company has specialized in the automated quality assessment of potatoes and shows its progress at Interpom.

The total potato harvest in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France in 2018 will be at least 20 percent lower than last year, according to the latest estimates of the North-western European Potato Growers (NEPG).

Brent Bucks of knife manufacturer FAM explains how potato chips processors can increase revenues despite the low quality crop

The North-Western European Potato Growers (NEPG) conclude that the potato production this year in North-Western Europe will be much lower than average and that quality issues will be a main challenge.

The extreme heat and drought is a disaster for the upcoming potato harvest. And for processors too: in Belgium, potato chips manufacturer Roger&Roger (Croky) temporarily halts production of some its flavours to manage the lack of potato supply.

The NEPG (North-Western European Potato Growers) estimate that the growers in the 5 leading potato growing countries will plant 0,4% more potatoes than last year.

The record year of 2016 for the Belgian potato processing industry continued into 2017, according to Belgapom, the Belgian potato trade and processing industry association.

The North-Western European Potato Growers report on volume and condition of the potatoes still in storage