This year is not a good year for Swiss potato producers. After the potatoes already had to endure bad weather conditions last year, this year’s harvest is likely to fall through. The first potato producers have already written off their harvest for the year, and ploughed their fields.
In many places potato producers have already written off their harvests.
“We will not have concrete figures until late August, but one thing is clear, it will not be a good harvest,” confirms Irene Vonlanthen, interim manager of the VSKP, or ‘Vereinigung Schweizer Kartoffelproduzenten.’
Domestic production remains important
When BLW, ‘Bundesamt für Landwirtschaft,’ entered into consultation about the regulations for 2016, the uproar was great within the potato industry. Especially the proposed adjustment of the import regime for consumption potatoes caused discontent.
The previously existing pairing to domestic production is no longer of this time, according to the BLW, and they therefore proposed auctioning the base quantity, 6,500 tonnes, and the principle of ‘first come, first served’ for additional quantities of potatoes.
The Swiss potato industry completely disagreed with this. The change to the system would have far-reaching consequences for the industry according to them. The industry was especially horrified by the idea that players form outside the sector would suddenly gain access to import contingents. Furthermore, there was concern that producer prices would be put under even more pressure.
Still undecided
However, Swisspatat also realises that the current system is not without its problems. The industry organisation, however, proposes that a market share should decide who gets to import what quantity from now on.
This market share of importers entitled to import consists of two things: domestic production and import quantity in the previous period. The proposed system has already proven itself for fruits and vegetables, Swisspatat also writes. Domestic production would therefore not become abundant. The industry’s proposal was well received by BLW, reported BLW at the request of ‘BauernZeitung.’ To what extent this mini-reform will be implemented, however, is still undecided.