Kartoffeln Cockpit, 15.03.2019

The AHDB (Agriculture and Horticulture Board) warned the country's potato exporters this week about the immediate consequences of a no-deal Brexit. In such a scenario, from 11:00 pm on 29 March, no potatoes will be allowed to be brought into the European Union for the time being. The EU Commission had informed the association on request that it would treat Britain as a third country without a trade agreement. A derogation for potato deliveries from third countries, as it applies, for example, for Egypt and Israel, the British could apply only when the withdrawal is completed. However, the processing of the approval takes time. Last year, the UK exported 96,000 tonnes of seed potatoes. 1/3 of them went to other EU countries. In addition, 162,000 tonnes of potatoes of other uses were exported, of which 93% went to the EU. Mainly to Spain and Ireland. The exit date is just the highest time of seedlings.The PotatoCall said yesterday that not only the spring storms are retarding British exports, but also stricter controls on export documents due to the impending Brexit. This leads to long traffic jams at the border. The demand for British potatoes from Belgium, Northern and Eastern Europe and Spain is particularly good these days. At the same time, only relatively small potato stocks were found on the island on January 31, at 1.84 million tons. Last year there were 2.43 million tons at this date and 1.95 million tons in 2016/17. In the year 2012/13, the amount at the end of January was last at 1.65 million tonnes smaller than now. In addition to France, Great Britain is currently contributing significantly to the supply of potatoes in Europe. In France, only 1.75 million tonnes of potatoes were stored at the end of January, of which 63% are already sold to potato processors. However, relatively large potato stocks are still to be stored in Holland. The AMI wrote this week that Holland's fry industry is sitting on a rich raw material pad. Earlier, the VTA had published the results of a February survey of its members.According to that, the storers in the country had been selling relatively few potatoes since the fall. In contrast to their counterparts in other EU countries, they have quite high stocks. This was made possible by the raw material conservation of the potato processors. They saved the contract volumes and since the autumn have been providing domestic and foreign double-use varieties. In addition, they had for a long time still potatoes from the previous year's harvest available. So the British are currently selling as many potatoes as possible to the EU before a possible Brexit, the French have used the extremely good demand in the winter to build up their relatively good harvest and the Dutch can still use contract potatoes for a long time. From a supply shortage was in the last few days in Europe so not much felt. And so it is not surprising that the prices did not increase at last. But they can still hold their own at the high level they have achieved. The market pointer of the Leipzig futures exchange EEX, however, fell on Thursday by 20 cents to 30.80 € / dt. This was due to weaker spot market prices in the Netherlands and Germany. By contrast, the April 19 futures contract fell by more than one euro this week.The expectations of market participants for higher prices have thus disappeared.