At the moment, the potato market is quiet. "You can see that everyone is preparing for the new season," Jurgen Duthoo and Stijn De Pourcq of Warnez Potatoes tell us. "We now have mainly French potatoes on the line, because for the main harvest of Belgian potatoes we will have to be patient for some time."
"In France, we have started harvesting," explained the pair from the packer, which will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2025. "In Belgium, not yet. Some early potatoes are already being harvested here, but that is mainly product going towards industry. In Belgium, of course, it's all a bit later. Due to the wet conditions in spring, planting was on average 4 to 6 weeks later. Eventually, cultivation did partly make up for it, but that still means there is a 3 to 5-week delay. This mainly concerns Belgium, a small part of the southern Netherlands and northern France," Stijn explained.
When exactly it can then be expected, he also does not dare to say. "Maybe some of the firm potatoes can already be harvested in September, but otherwise in Belgium anyway little to nothing. I also spoke to some seed potato growers this week, with some normally starting to harvest in mid-August, but they too are still waiting. So patience will definitely be needed for the main harvest. How it will look will have to wait and see in the coming weeks. They are outside, so we are dependent on nature."
"Other than that, the other growing areas look pretty normal," he continued. "In France, Germany and most of the Netherlands, everyone is more or less on schedule, so all that is coming through pretty well at the moment. We do see correct productions there as well. For the prime areas, it is an average harvest with some outliers down in some fields and some outliers up in some fields. Also, the early potatoes, which are mainly going to the industry at the moment, have a decent harvest, we have the impression. These are mostly sandy soils, so the water drains more easily. In drought, this is a bit tricky, but with the rain, we have the advantage of it."
Quiet holiday period
So it is all slowly but surely starting up again, but on the market it has yet to erupt, according to Jurgen. "In terms of exports, it is very quiet at the moment. I think there is some local cultivation everywhere now. We do sometimes have some enquiries for niche products, but they are all not large volumes. For now, it's mainly monitoring and evaluating the crop, after which we prepare for what's to come."
"The domestic market has also been somewhat quiet due to the holiday period and many changes in the weather. Very wet periods alternated with very hot days, which resulted in below-average consumption. As a result, prices vary a lot by product. On the one hand, for instance, you have early potatoes for the industry, where we see that off-field prices are falling, but with niche products, such as bantam potatoes, there is scarcity, so prices are firm there. It varies a lot. In any case, we can get on nicely and quietly wait for the main harvest from Belgium, and then we can look forward to another nice period. After which, hopefully in 2025, we can thus have a nice celebration for our anniversary. In any case, the celebration committee is already busy as well."
For more information:
Jurgen Duthoo
Stijn De Pourcq
Warnez Potatoes
Marialoopsesteenweg 2L
B-8700 - Tielt - Belgium
+32 051 400812
[email protected]
www.warnezpotatoes.be