EU fry exports no longer show significant reductions

Export figures of frozen French fries from the EU-5 countries were only a little lower in September, compared to a year ago. Depending on the country there is mostly still slight reduction. Belgium and France both performed better during September. EU-5 exports of frozen fries came in at 509,000 tonnes during September 2025. This is 1.2% more than the 503,000 tones that were exported during the same month a year ago. This is mainly due to stable Belgian figures and – despite a reduction – still overall higher export levels for France.Belgian trade recoversBelgium exported 9,621 tonnes more fries during September compared to August 2025. A 4% increase. Compared to September 2024 the volume was still 5,155 tonnes lower. After some healthy figures during summer, the Netherlands saw a small fallback in its figures for September. 5,000 tonne less was exported, which accounts to 3.54%. The largest change was for France. It’s exports increased by 4,690 tonnes.Both France and Germany have already supplied figures for the October export to the harmonised trade system. These show that France’s exports did fall back somewhat, with a reduction of over 10,000 tonnes. Germany on the other hand performed a little better, building on a small growth achieved in September. Finally, Poland also saw a 10,000 tonnes plus reduction in September.Expensive fries drop in priceOn top of its higher export volumes, Belgian exporters also managed to increase the sales price of their potato products. Average prices paid went from €1,160 to €1,190 per tonne. Belgian fries remain the cheapest available fries from Europe, followed by French produce at €1,220. Dutch sales prices also went upwards, to a level of €1,360 per tonne and Germany remains solely on top, but its price did come down from €1,400 to €1,394 per tonne. The graph also shows a further and significant reduction for October.World trade grew by 3.5% during September. This means that the largest European exporters are still losing some ground, but this pace is slowing down. Indian and Chinese export figures still show the largest percental growth. Frozen fry prices overall dropped more than 4%, which means that Europe is still fetching above-average prices and sometimes even higher prices than before. CompetitivenessWhether this is a positive movement remains to be seen, as Europe needs to be competitive to regain some of its market share, mainly in Southeast Asia and North-Africa. France is the only the country that still shows a significantly increase in exports, due to the fact that its processing capacity and raw potato volume have both increased significantly. The other four European countries remain under pressure for the time to come.