“The start of the early potato season has been difficult. One can even say that the market has been butchered by speculation…” says Christian Duchemin, producer and potato negotiator near Caen.
It is increasingly difficult for early potatoes due to a large stock of ‘storage’ potatoes from the winter. “This winter, it was crazily difficult to find storage potatoes. Some wanted to increase the prices. And at a time when early potatoes were meant to take over, old stock that hadn’t been sold was brought out… The profession is shooting itself in the foot.”
According to André Mainguy, President of the early potato section at Cerafel, the excess stock will reach 100,000 to 150,000 tons. In Brittany, by mid-July, only 3,000 tons of early potatoes had been sold out of 15,000 tons of production.
Some vegetable farms fear the worst as they rely on both productions. Currently early potatoes are being sold for less than storage potatoes… yet in the shops new potatoes are still 50% more expensive.
According to the Interproffessional National Potato Committee (CNIPT), the amount of early potatoes in shops decreases every year. Production of ‘new’ potatoes is only at 100,000 tons, a lot less that ten years ago.