Kartoffeln Cockpit, 17.11.2017

(AMI) - The Association PCA publishes in its latest Niewsbrief the data for this year's potato harvest in Belgium. Accordingly, it adds up to the record amount of 5.11 million tonnes, which is 27% more than in the previous year and 33% more than the 5-year average. The enormous increase is the result of a significant area expansion and high yields. The latter were also enhanced by the move from Bintje to more profitable varieties. After the already large increase in area in 2016, the area continued to increase in 2017, to 95,228 ha. So far, FOD, the Office of Statistics, had been expected by 3,000 ha less. The additional area is almost entirely in Wallonia, where 41,363 ha came together. In Flanders, however, there are already more potatoes with 53,865 ha. There was this year the biggest crop obstruction by wet. At the beginning of November, 1% of the area had not been harvested there yet. At the time, however, only a small amount was written off. So paragraph can be found, most is probably still brought from the field. However, the quality is no longer good. But there are also areas in Wallonia where the potatoes have not yet been harvested.There were too few harvest days for the heavily grown area, there is a lack of storage capacity and the ability to deliver more from the field. The average potato yield in Belgium in 2017 is estimated at 53.7 t / ha. This is much more than the average of the previous years but not quite as much as in 2014. This season fell due to the summer drought, the yields of mid-early varieties back.