Kartoffeln Cockpit, 17.03.2018

Despite all warnings: acreage is increasing   The Belgian potato industry is developing at a rapid pace. The industry association Belgapom reports this week that in 2017 4.57 million tonnes of potatoes were used as raw material for the production of potato products. Compared to the previous year, this is an increase of 375,000 tonnes or 8.5%. This resulted in a record amount of 2.682 million tonnes of potato products, including 1.77 million tonnes of frozen potatoes. However, the largest increase rates of up to 50% were recorded in the products such as puree, croquettes, chips and flakes. The Belgian potato processors have invested heavily in the expansion and modernization of their facilities in recent years. In 2017, this was 300 million euros. 4,400 people are employed in 18 large plants. The raw material is usually purchased via preliminary contracts in Germany and abroad. The contract cultivation in the north of France grew particularly strong but also in the Netherlands and in Germany, the farmers produce for Belgian fries.With their contracts, farmers are doing particularly well this year and market analysts expect potato acreage to continue to grow in 2018, even though the market suffers from large oversupply and low spot market prices. Farmers who conclude supply contracts with factories usually have no problem selling their crops. Not only will they get rid of their tightly sold quantities, but also the quantities that are offered beyond. Although these only go at the price of the day, that is, at the prices set by quotation commissions, they go away. Those who only produce potatoes for the free market, have this year (so far) the disadvantage. Despite the cold and late planting date, there are no signs of market recovery or even better prices for frit raw materials. If the buyers are even on the market, they are only interested in very late delivery dates in May or June. But the prices you hear are no different than those on the futures market for the June 18 date.Another reason for a stable acreage is due to the wet in the fall, which prevented that not all winter cereal areas could be ordered as planned. In the meantime, seeds for summer crops are scarce and expensive, and nobody is attracting grain prices. Potatoes, on the other hand, are in abundance and so more potatoes will be grown than the market can cope with. The potato associations advise against the misery on the free potato market to limit the cultivation. The biggest problems would cause the Lower Saxony, because there is the willingness to grow less table potatoes, is the least pronounced. In the West, the farmers were supposed to grow fewer new potatoes for making chips because the supplies from the old harvest are still too big. If that does not happen, we could move into another low-price year. The feared the AMI and advises to hedge in time on the futures exchange against falling prices. Meanwhile, the French have noticeably more success in exporting. The local potato association CNIPT reports proudly about lively exports to Spain, Poland, the Czech Republic and Italy.They make the German colleagues neat competition. The order receives only who makes the best prices. With the export there is hardly any difference between the prices for table potatoes and frit raw material. Bintje are already available in France for two euros / 100 kg, preferred varieties such as Agria, Markies and Fontane achieve from 6.5 to 8 € / dt. At the futures exchange, the prices of the April-18-date rose to 5.6 € / dt at the beginning of this week, but this changed again when on Thursday the EEX kept the refining potato index unchanged at 4 € / dt. The futures exchange therefore offers one euro more than the current cash market. There are just too many average quality games, so quotes stayed at the previous week's level in almost all of their announcements. In Germany, however, the respondents reported 30 cents less, thus abandoning the increase of the previous week. The price pressure on the Dutch market was probably too big. German suppliers have to face competition from other surplus regions.