Kartoffeln Cockpit, 12.04.2019

In a commentary in today's Marktfax of the Farmer Group, the authors are surprised by the price reduction in Belgium, especially since, it is said, there was no willingness to sell potatoes at these rates in both Belgium and the other producing countries. The market watcher AMI in Bonn reports that no or only a few potatoes are being sold. The market for processing potatoes is resilient. Producers and storekeepers are relaxed and expect better sales opportunities in the future. Until the planned sales period, which probably came only in May or later, the owners of free processing raw material actually do not observe the market situation at all. The reason for the behavior is that there are hardly any salable stocks from the old harvest in Europe. Also, the variety Bintje should no longer be in free sale. At the beginning of February, there were only 36,000 tonnes in Belgium, compared to 130,000 tonnes reported a year ago. Although total inventories in Belgium at the survey date in February 2019 were as low as they had been in five years, there are still weekly quotes.And these are used to calculate the EEX potato index. Last Thursday, the index was down € 1.9 / 100 kg and the price for processed potatoes in Belgium is € 27.8 / 100 kg, which is also the average price for Central Europe. The French SNM index, which - contrary to expectations from Germany and Holland - now followed the Belgapom quotation, also contributes to this. The news from France lost compared to the previous week namely even 2.5 € / 100 kg and with 26.83 € / 100 kg, the French contribution to the calculation of the stock market indicator even the bottom of the four reporting countries. Presumably in France and Belgium, but again some distressed Bintje games have emerged, whose durability is doubted. Already in the autumn, the factories had processed an extremely large number of distressed lots, thus taking into account the scarce raw material base in Europe. The Frittenfabriken is quite clear that you can not let potatoes perish in this particular year and so they process now again the games whose durability is obviously limited, preferred.Since even now the yield or at least the expense of producing high-quality potato products requires a higher effort, the factories can be compensated by a discount to the "normal" market price. The fact that these "cheap" prices are included in the index is due to the contract specification of the futures contract. In fact, the formula only provides for dividing the quotations from Belgium, France, Holland and Germany equally. So, in each of the four countries, quotations are used to give the market an idea of what is being paid. For Belgium and France, they have decided to take the dominant Bintje listing. The prices in Holland and Germany differ significantly from those of the other two (Bintje) countries, because there are hardly any Bintje processed. The market analysts may criticize this, but they can not ignore the regulations of the stock exchange. Finally, the calculation mechanism for the index has remained unchanged for years and should not necessarily be changed arbitrarily. However, the market participants are not deterred by the falling prices on the derivatives exchange.The REKA Rehinland does not want to take back its prices in the next few weeks either. Finally, the tail does not wag its dog.