“We have strongly increased our exports to Spain this year, with a high demand for good quality potatoes,” explains Antoine Geysels, director of Top’Pom. The company, located in the Aube department, produces and trades consumer potatoes.
Antoine gives two explanations for the increase in exports to Spain. “On the one hand, consumption on the Spanish market is generally increasing, and on the other hand, the Spanish no longer have good quality potatoes this year so they get them from France.”
Antoine adds that it has been more difficult than usual to sell average quality batches since the beginning of the campaign. “We usually have more openings around this time of year, but the demand from Italy, Spain and Eastern countries is still low for those qualities. This is namely due to the fact that potatoes of similar quality are still available locally in Spain and Italy. We have requests from Eastern countries, but they buy in Germany for the most part. German potatoes are less expensive than French potatoes and we are not competitive in terms of logistics costs.”
The French market is rather calm. “At the moment, packers mostly load their contracts, which means fewer purchases on the free market, except for a few specific varieties.” According to Antoine, the strikes in France slightly affected the logistics but did not have any significant impact on trade.
For more information:
Top’Pom
Z.I. Villette 10700
Arcis-sur-Aube
Phone: +33 3 25 37 12 16
antoine@top-pom.fr
www.top-pom.fr