Kartoffeln Cockpit, 07.06.2019

The authors of the report on the estimation of potato crops in the EU's five main producing countries, the Northwestern European Potato Growers (NEPG), note that all production costs for potato growing have increased. Seeds cost more and usually the rents also increased. For Great Britain, it is still too early for an area estimate. Therefore, the experts used figures from the five-year average for their extrapolation. The final estimate for land use will be available at the beginning of July. A table shows that cultivation in Germany increased the most, compared to 2018, with 184,750 hectares of consumer potatoes (+ 3.5%). With this, Germany is extending its lead within the Fünfer Group even further. On a five-year average, potato cultivation area in Germany increased by 9.3%. Potato production in France increased by 3% compared to last year and now stands at 147,000 hectares. In the last five years, however, the increase was 13.8% and thus the highest in the Fiver Association. In third place is Great Britain with an assumed acreage of 101,778 hectares (+ 0.7% yoy).Fourth ahead of Holland is Belgium, with 97,587 hectares of potato cultivation. That's an increase of 3.3% since last year and 10.5% compared to the five-year average. In Holland, consumer potatoes were cultivated on 78,500 hectares this year (+ 1.7% yoy and 5.6% over the five-year average). In all five countries, crops were planted earlier than usual, but field crops are now only at an average vegetation level. It was too cold in April and May. The first processing potatoes from Germany and Belgium will be launched in mid-July. Maybe there are a few potatoes at the end of June, but the yields are likely to be very small. The season with new processing raw material will probably start one week later. At the last meeting of the NEPG members, the participants agreed that the increase in area will meet the increased demand of the potato processing industry and foreign demand. The authors also emphasize that it is always the yields that determine whether the final harvest in terms of quality and quantity is sufficient.This year, the season is longer than usual, because there is virtually no starting inventory from the previous season more. That's why you'll need more potatoes. The extremely tight supply of contract-free potatoes from the last harvest and the later harvest start into the new season are already a big challenge for some factories today. They wait with impatience for the new harvest. The futures exchange EEX in Leipzig ended its potato season 2018/19 with yesterday's trading day. The June 19 futures contract on processed potatoes was finally settled at 31.20 € / dt. Thus ends for this season also the publication of the market pointer, the EEX Potato Index. With the beginning of the marketing season for storage potatoes of the 2019 harvest, the stock exchange will start again in November with the collection of cash market prices in Belgium, France, Holland and Germany, from which the index will be calculated again. Given that the potato raw material is temporarily running out completely, the factories now have to reduce their TK stocks. Even with TK frits it could be scarce in the coming weeks. Although the acreage has been expanded, but the farmers are already worried about the yields.In all five NEPG countries there is a latent dryness. The water levels in the reservoirs and wells are much lower than the average of the years. In order to bring the crops to good yields, rain is urgently needed and where can be rained, the plants already have to run. However, irrigation bans have already been imposed in some regions.