Processed a lot of potatoes with minimal effort

The industry has processed a considerable amount of potatoes with minimal effort. This can be inferred from the publication of the processing figures for the month of December. In total, the factories processed 334,700 tons of potatoes, according to figures from industry organization Vavi. This is 8,800 tons (2.5%) less than in the same month of 2024, but considering the low expectations and the mood in the market, this is quite an encouraging figure. Due to the difficult sales market, various production lines were already shut down on December 19 due to the Christmas break. Other lines followed, which were stopped for a longer period starting December 24. Production only resumed from January 5 onwards. Thus, December only accounted for three weeks of relatively full production. Nevertheless, more potatoes were processed than the 5-year average. This is at least remarkable. It also indicates some recovery after November, during which only 288,000 tons of potatoes were processed at the factories. It is also notable that the factories did not alter the processing of imported potatoes. The supply from abroad was exactly the same as in December 2024, with 176,500 tons. This means that just over half of the processing consisted of imported potatoes. The supply of Dutch potatoes to the factories was smaller than in previous years in December. Last month, 158,200 tons of Dutch potatoes were processed, which is 8,800 tons (5.3%) less than last year. It is the smallest amount of Dutch potatoes processed in December in more than ten years. In the past, over 200,000 tons of Dutch potatoes have been processed in December. From July 2025, the processing amounts to 1.78 million tons. This quantity is almost 100,000 tons or 5% smaller than in the first six months of the previous season. This decline actually isn’t too bad considering the problems the potato market has faced this year. Over a period of six months, Dutch potatoes accounted for nearly 53% of total processing. During this period, slightly more (1%) Dutch potatoes were processed (939,100 tons) than in the same period of 2024.