Kartoffeln Cockpit, 17.05.2019

Commodity buyers at Frittenmarkt are chasing after the last top batch of lagers and driving up prices this week. This also benefits potatoes of the second choice. Only really bad qualities with small calibres and bad baking colors are hard to sell. Yesterday, the firm sentiment was also reflected in the EEX index for processed potato. The market indicator has risen by € 1.60 / dt or 5.5% since last week. The biggest increase is currently observed in Belgium, where prices rose by € 2.84 / dt or an impressive 10% within one week. This includes Belgium to France, where also spot market prices were found just under € 30 / dt. Not far away is one in Germany, where the Frittenrohstoff yesterday cost 30.18 € / dt. By far the most expensive are the processing potatoes in Holland, where they cost 32.41 € / dt. Obviously, it does not hit the ceiling yet. Quantities traded on the free market at these high prices are small, but the price trend remains firm, according to FIWAP in yesterday's weekly report.The experts report a price range of 30 to 34 € / dt, partly already from 37.50 € / dt, which is probably no longer paid by the factories, but rather by local retailers on the fresh market. Holland is currently continuing to export to Eastern and Southern Europe at prices of 30 to 34 € / dt in big bags for washable lots and for Agria 55 mm + from 40 to 45 € / dt from Spanish and Portuguese importers. After the pleasing rains last week, it will stay dry in the next 7 days in Holland. France's fry commodity market is described as quiet, but prices have risen this week as well. Especially with the varieties Fontane and other coveted fritters. Financial statements of € 27.5 to € 32.0 / dt were reported, only the Bintje variety is weaker. Exports are barely reported because there are virtually no supplies left. The season is probably already over. With the field work, the farmers are finished and the discussions are increasingly turning to the prevailing drought. In Hauts de France you are already alarmed and very attentive in the north in Pas-de-Calais.On the German Lower Rhine, the quotations for old potatoes have already been discontinued because no more shops are reported. Recently the prices rose again. The German market is only supplied with German potatoes by regional suppliers. Imports come from France and there are even first German new potatoes from Baden-Württemberg, which are sold for 120 € / dt. Prices for fry raw material vary greatly depending on the quality. Overall, these continue to rise. Potato cultivation in Germany is growing by 3% this year. At the beginning of this week, the Federal Statistical Office made an initial estimate of the land use. Accordingly, 260,000 hectares of potatoes were ordered here in Germany. That would be 8,000 hectares more than last year. The first estimates are based on a rather thin database. So you have to see it as a tendency. Observers assume that the increase in area is primarily for processing potatoes. The particularly favorable conditions in the plant and the rain in the last week ensured that more farmers on the futures market hedged their prices, which leads to falling prices.Meanwhile, more contracts on potatoes are open to the new harvest than to the June 19 date. The particularly turbulent 2018/19 season with very high cash market prices, which is now coming to an end, ensured that farmers' price hedging interests were not so crowded for the 2019 harvest. Therefore, the first deals on the April 20 date came at a slightly higher price than in previous years. Whether the threatening drought already contributes to the higher rates is not certain.