On a potato farm located north of Paris, the first new potatoes will be harvested at the beginning of August, and the last potato stocks from the previous campaign have just been sold. “We planted a month ago so it is far too early to say anything about the early season trends. On the other hand, we have just finished the last campaign one month earlier than in previous years.”
This situation is “exceptional”, to say the least, both in terms of production and trade. “The older producers who have been around for decades say that they have never experienced such a situation. The previous campaign was extremely difficult. Due to the drought, we encountered production problems last year, and a significant drop in yield. This lack of supply unbalanced the market and naturally led to a price increase of approximately 20-25% at the end of the campaign.” The situation was exacerbated by the shortage of early Spanish products, due to the large amount of rain which made harvesting very complicated.
“We also had to deal with quality problems, since the potatoes had less dry matter and more water. Compression points appeared much more quickly, which was problematic in terms of conservation. Despite these market shortages, however, the demand continued to grow. Overall, we had a good marketing campaign.”