It is currently very quiet on the Belgian potato market. "Because of the late planting dates, everything has become compacted. Everything that comes out of the ground now goes to the industry: contracts are filled, but that's it. There is vey little free trade, if at all. It is not yet running how it should," says Jan Van Luchene of Bruwier Potatoes.
"It has all still to start," he continues. "We are in the period of early potatoes, which I know from experience that the hedging of the industry is very high. It's like that every year. Once we get into October and we go into the other varieties, that hedging gets a little smaller. But this is what you have with the early potatoes."
"I have even heard from some growers that they have already been allowed to drop their contract, but the rest remain on plan for now. The main harvest won't come until mid-October. Many lots only went into the ground during the first half of June. You have to add between 120 and 150 cultivation days to that, so it will be a lot later now. It can't be otherwise."
The specialist is moderately positive about the new crop, though. "Our trial harvest figures are quite promising in terms of tonnage. Whether that is good for the market is a different thing, but fairly good yields will be achieved, I expect. I don't think we will achieve figures from last year. They were very high then, but then, of course, we had other problems with lifting. Nevertheless, yields do seem to be coming in OK. You have to keep in mind that there are also plots with quite a few problems, which were not included in our trial harvest figures. Late planed plots with small yields. Those plots are therefore a lot less, but on the other hand, the acreage in Europe is also a lot larger, so one might cancel out the other."
So it's a bit of a wait and see at the moment, according to Jan. "The early potatoes, which were planted on 'normal' dates, are now gone, but now the late-planted ones are following and they still need time. Therefore, there is also a bit less pressure on the supply side at the moment, but I fear that within 2-3 weeks there will be a bit of pressure on that market again. By 1 October, we will certainly still be harvesting early potatoes, but by then the storage varieties will also start pushing. We will then probably see a similar phenomenon to last year, where there was just too much supply and the price couldn't keep up. I fear we will see it again this season. However, in August you always have to be careful with predictions, because a lot can still happen. Remember 2023."
For more information:
Jan Van Luchene
Bruwier Potatoes
Galgestraat 1A
B-8790 Waregem, Belgium
+32 56 61 33 33
[email protected]
www.bruwier.be