"Falling German potato consumption troubling"

The current potato year has, in many ways, been unique. "We are hoping to quickly forget this year. You often expect the year to go a certain way, but this year had many unexpected factors," said Bram Werkman from potato warehouse Landjuweel. "It has been very tricky. At the beginning expectations were very high, but that was not the result and this happened on many levels. If Russia was still on the market then there might be a different story and if we keep this beautiful weather there will be problems with storage."

"Harvesting conditions, particularly in the north of the country, have been fine, but in many places they have to wait a further three weeks to catch up. Potatoes have really grown, this past couple of weeks, and there are plenty of large ones on the market. There are huge differences in quality, and also a big differences in price. Altogether it is a very interesting market and with the better quality we may have reached the top of the market," remarked the potato trader. "There are no difficulties with potato import since price differences are huge and retailers do not need to buy them so long as there are still good old ones available."

"Potatoes are selling, here and there, but sales are below average. Top quality potatoes, at the best prices, go to Germany and the Middle East, but the majority of export is under pressure, and there is also nothing special happening in the industry sector either," said Bram. "More worrying, I think that potato consumption in countries like Germany, has considerably decreased. There are figures showing that potato sales in Germany during the summer were 20% less and different retailers I have spoken to share the same picture. This is the same throughout The Netherlands, Belgium and France although there are fewer figures available. In the potato sector we need to prepare ourselves for what we are going to do. Luckily there are already steps being taken in Germany to promote potato consumption."

For more information:
Bram Werkman
Landjuweel
Oosternielandsterweg 9
9985 SB Oosternieland
Tel.: +31 (0)595 45 42 00
Fax: +31 (0)595 41 34 46
www.landjuweel.nl