Potato market chronicle July 2017

We had thought that with this 2016 harvest, we would run out of quality lots at the end of the season. We thought that the upcoming early harvest campaign would barely arrive in time to meet demand. And then, patatras! All that is shattered by the large remaining stocks at the end of the season.
Improving the industry

All those fine words about improving the industry and segmentation of quality – why all that? To see potato promotions in September with last year’s harvest? Run for your lives! We can always talk about taste, but if we don’t know how to respect seasonality, nobody stands to gain.

High prices

As far as plantings are concerned, there’s another problem. With the increase in planted areas, everyone is speculating so that the other will suffer a climatic hazard. It’s difficult to regulate this in a generally uncertain agricultural context, but it promises to be a good crisis to come. That said, we’re coming off a complicated year which saw the average price per kilo rise. At the same time, we’ve never seen the French fry industry buy so much in such large volumes. From now on, they’ll be setting the tone for the campaign. In the meantime, I wish you all a great summer, and for the lucky ones, a happy vacation!