Giant in fries remains dwarf in paying potato price

Belgian potato quotations show no movement at all. Even rising inflation of more than 4% in that country does not bring any change to this. The leading quotations of Viaverda/Fiwap and Belgapom for freely tradable Fontane have remained at €0 per 100 kilos for months. Even now that the season is heading toward its end, this development shows no reversal. For Challenger, Belgapom has long been unable to quote a price.The persistence of the quotation committees in Belgium is also reflected in the European potato quotation EPP of futures market organiser EEX. Since mid-April, the contribution from Belgium in this index has stood at €0.30 per 100 kilos. Next week the books close for the EPP index, and with that the final cash settlement becomes a fact. There has been no trade since the April contract expired, so no futures contract needs to be settled on this cash settlement. At zero for weeks Belgium stands out in this index as the only country in the EU-4 with a quotation that has been at the same level for eight weeks. Even more notable is that the country with the largest potato processing provides the smallest contribution to this potato index. The giant in fries proves to be the dwarf in prices when it comes to settling. The Netherlands, France and Germany also have very low prices, but their contribution to the European potato index is many times higher than that of Belgium. Notably, these countries do show weekly price differences. In March and April Germany had the highest potato prices. In May the Netherlands regained the initiative. Over the past week, the price level in the Netherlands was about €1.50 per 100 kilos higher than in Germany. The French price, at €1.74, is more than 30 cents below the German price. This means the French price is still about six times higher than in Belgium. The Dutch price is also low, but is still about twelve times higher than the Belgian price. For all countries, very few potatoes are traded on the free market. In such a thin market, it is difficult to make a proper reflection of price formation. The RNM quotation in France has therefore not been established for months. FranceAgriMer does report some trade in Markies, with prices from €5 per 100 kilos for immediate delivery to €10 for delivery in June. Final harvest estimate The Belgians announced a final estimate for the 2025 harvest this week. According to statistics agency StatBel, potato production in 2025 increased by 21%. Potatoes did particularly well in 2025, according to StatBel. The acreage increased by 7.2%, but the biggest contribution comes from higher yields. Per hectare, 13% more was harvested. For storage potatoes, StatBel arrives at a production of 4.4 million tons. That is 740,000 tons, or 20%, more than in the 2024 harvest. For early potatoes, the increase was larger. Volume rose by 39% to almost 300,000 tons. Seed potato production increased by 8% to 93,671 tons. That is 41 to 47% more than in the years 2021, 2022 and 2023. Nevertheless, Belgium imports significantly more seed potatoes from the Netherlands than in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Through April, Belgian buyers purchased 123,410 tons of seed potatoes in the Netherlands. That is slightly less than last year, but Belgium is this year the only buyer importing more than 100,000 tons of seed potatoes from the Netherlands.