Kartoffeln Cockpit, 16.12.2018

The European fry producers have to do the trick this season, from a historically small harvest to serve the rapidly increasing demand for French fries. In 2017, a year of high commodity surpluses, exports of fries from Belgium, Holland and Germany to EU third countries increased by 20%. Almost all countries that already bought more and more chips from the EU, such as Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Chile, China, Russia and the US, increased their import volumes by 2-digit% rates in the third quarter of 2018. Keeping the high export level is likely to be impossible, but potato product suppliers would not be as successful if they were already beaten at this point. You have long been looking for the raw material in a wider radius than usual. Thus, despite all the phytosanitary problems that the country still has, Poland is already returning to Western Europe. And France has been relocating its export of table potatoes for weeks, provided that they have a baking suit, instead of going to southern Europe in the direction of Belgium and Holland.In addition to many fresh potatoes, which migrated to the fryers of the factories throughout Central and Western Europe just after the harvest, instead of the shelves of the food retailing, an unknown but certainly large amount of starch potatoes, from which actually building materials or newspapers could have originated processed human consumption, or rather to be refined. However, many of these unplanned cross uses have already been made to consumers around the world. Otherwise, there would hardly be such an enormous increase in the export volume. And these products are probably not eaten yet. Some of this is certainly still stored in frozen foods in the recipient countries. After all, it was already known in late summer that potato raw material supplies in Europe could become tight. Price increases were inevitable. In the meantime, they are also assignable. Today, the Belgapom noted the variety Bintje equal to 5 euros per 100 kg tighter than last week. A sure sign that the stock-critical batches, which were still offered for weeks at 15 € / dt or cheaper under pressure, now go to Nei-ge. Now the association of the Belgian Frittenfabriken Bintje noted with 20 € / dt.But that is far from the end of the flagpole, because games without defects now cost anywhere in Central Europe up to 30 € / dt. In the coming week, the EEX Potato Index will therefore rise more vigorously than most recently. The market pointer was calculated by the Leipzig stock exchange last Thursday at 26.40 € / dt (+0.30 € / dt). From next week, France should then be at the bottom of the list with its listing. As the 2018 crop in France was even comparatively good at 5.9 million tonnes. Can be exported from there more. And that will be used by the exporters. You have the choice. Buyers from all directions over-seem to offer themselves. At the moment, regular customers in the Iberian peninsula are in the wrong. Although Spain imports a 20% smaller crop, this is easier to compensate than a failure in Belgium, where factories are likely to face major problems in meeting their contractual obligations to fries customers around the world ,Since all manufacturers of processed potato products have largely made the calculation using contract potatoes at fixed prices, the excessively high purchase volumes will increase the average purchase price, but that is only half as bad as with the suppliers of fresh ones Potatoes, where a higher purchase price is equal to full on the retail price. If contract farmers can not deliver their promised quantities, they must compensate the factories for the difference to the high daily price. So the raw material purchasers are doubly protected. In view of the rising forward market prices, they can now also sell their products at higher prices. All that remains for them is to get as soon as possible to the next harvest, which will be planted in two to three months.