The potatoes in Belgium still have to harvested. However, it is evident to De Aardappelhoeve that this year's potato yield will not be one for the record books. "The french fry potatoes will probably be too small. This is due to the dry weather. We are not expecting a very big yield," says Ruben Nemegheer of De Aardappelhoeve.
“Just like last year, the dry weather has played a part again. This year, however, we also had to deal with extremely high temperatures. This hot weather brought the potatoes' growth to a standstill. This, in turn, affects the yield."
Ruben Nemegheer
“In contrast, the early potato crops have not done badly. We expected a lower yield because of last year's dry weather. But, the early crop was actually better than expected," says Ruben. "Thanks to last week's rain, we can start grubbing this week. This is a little later than usual. But we hope to have everything out of the ground by the end of this month."
"It is difficult to find staff. We, therefore, invested in robots to take over part of the work."
Besides the standard potato crop, Belgian sweet potatoes will soon be harvested too. "Sweet potatoes grow very well in warm weather. So, we have had a fantastic growth season. They, however, do not cope so well with dry weather. But, we have drip irrigation systems in all our sweet potato fields."
De Aardappelhoeve currently has 30 hectares of sweet potatoes. Twenty of these are for their own cultivation. "We will probably enlarge the sweet potato cultivation next year. We see the demand for this product still growing tremendously. And, with the climate changing, sweet potatoes now grow very well in Belgium," concludes Ruben.
For more information:
Ruben Nemegheer
De Aardappelhoeve
7A Putterij Street
8700 Tielt, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0) 477 291 784
ruben@deaardappelhoeve.be
www.deaardappelhoeve.be