On 1 October 2019, the Elbe dome in the Hotel Hafen Hamburg was the meeting place for around 170 guests for the 68th International Potato Autumn Exchange organized by the German Potato Trade Association. More than 20 companies presented themselves with new and proven products on their exhibition stands.
In his opening speech, Thomas Herkenrath, President of the host association Deutscher Kartoffelhandelsverband, emphasized that harvest quantities and prices were also determined by weather extremes in 2019.
Dr. Thomas Herkenrath - President of the hosting DKHV - predicted an average total return in his opening speech.
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Consequences of climate change
Climate change is noticeable to farmers in their day-to-day work. This can also be seen in the provisional harvest estimate of the Committee of Experts of the Federal Government and the Länder on "Special Harvest and Quality Assessment". With 10.4 million tonnes of potatoes, the harvest is 16.8% larger than the historically small harvest of 2018, but still about 1% below the long-term average. And that, although according to preliminary data the potatoes were cultivated in Germany on approximately 276,300 hectares. Compared to the previous year, an increase of 9.6 percent and compared to the multi-year average, even an increase of 12.8 percent.
The potato cultivation again suffered from the great heat and drought. Although this was not as pronounced as in the year before, nevertheless the Committee of Experts forecast an average German yield of only 37.7 tons per hectare for 2019. That was 5.8 t or 13% less than the long-term average. In addition, there would be large regional differences, and in the dry regions some areas could not yet be recovered. The rain of the last few days will hopefully help here.
The potato acreage in 2019 was also expanded in neighboring European countries. The average yield is estimated to be 44.7 t / ha and thus about 5% below the 5-year average.
Even if not all areas had been cleared and the actual qualities could not yet be assessed conclusively, according to Herkenrath, he started from a secure supply of food and processing goods.
"Trade of the future"
Oliver Brimmers from the Cologne Institute for Trade Research gave an insight into the "trade of the future" in his contribution to the topic and specifically addressed changes in food purchasing. The fresh food segment is a fast-growing segment in the food retail sector, where customers with emotional advertising would be addressed. This can be seen not only in the advertising activities, but also in the new form of branch designs, which rely on worlds of experience and enjoyment. Brimmers showed developments in the online trade and the use of multichannel methods and campaigned to present the potato emotionally and strongly to the food retail trade.
Exhibitors and guests discussed with an exquisite potato buffet until late into the night. The venue high above the Landungsbrücken was also quit stunning this year. Many guests have already entered the 23rd of September 2020 on their calendar, as the date for the next Potato Autumn Exchange.
For more information: www.dkhv.de