Potato futures market shuts down at record-low cash settlement price

The potato futures market goes into the history books with the lowest closing price ever. Yesterday was the last day on which trading could still take place on the futures market. Formally, the final cash settlement of the futures market in Leipzig will be published on 4 June. In fact, however, yesterday already marked the final cash settlement that still matters. That was at the end of the day on which trading in potato futures contracts could take place for the last time. There is no more trading in June contracts. That means the futures market ends with the last trading in April contracts. For the month of April, 300 contracts were still open. These contracts are settled on the basis of the cash settlement price, which comes to €1.40 per 100 kilos. Season 2025/26 already started with an extremely low European Processing Potato Index, the indicative cash settlement. On 13 November, futures market EEX published an EPP index of €2.50 per 100 kilos. After that, the market recovered somewhat, but it never rose above €3. From mid-January, the price kept falling further to end at €1.40 per 100 kilos. In mid-March, exchange operator EEX decided to close the potato futures market permanently. That brings an end to a market instrument that originated in Amsterdam. Dutch Liquidation House and Stichting Aardappeltermijnmarkt started the potato futures market there in 1958. In the initial period, there was physical delivery when a contract expired, later contracts were financially settled. With the closure of the futures market, transparency in the market and a way to hedge the price disappear, says Kees Maas, who together with Edwin Burgers is director of ADM Investor Services BV (formerly DCA Finance BV). This has a major impact on the potato trade. The futures market was a beacon in assessing sentiment and the expected price of potatoes. How do you now as a farmer determine in August the expected value of the potatoes in April? In recent years, laws and regulations made it increasingly difficult to trade on the futures market. Moreover, the market was too local and too small. The latter was reinforced by the fact that a large part of the potatoes was fixed under contract. As a result, there was little need among processors to hedge the supply of raw material.