Germany: strong decrease in price of organic potatoes
"With such prices we are losing several thousand Euro with every hectare where potatoes are grown. We do not want to blame anyone because we do not know how the prices got like this. This is why we are asking people to be understanding. Organic agriculture is not possible with these prices. The same is also true for conventional agriculture," reports Monike Tietke from the 'Bio Kartoffel Erzeuger Verein' (BKE) (Organic Potato Growers Association).
The price has never been this low. Ten years ago there was a dip, but at this time organic potatoes were not part of the grocery assortment. Since then organic potatoes have been introduced and that makes it possible to grow them at this scope. Demand has clearly risen in the last few years. The growing area has not been expanded though. The shortfall can be filled by using imported goods.
With this background knowledge it is incomprehensible for the organic potato growers that price is so low. On top of this, before the season began it was assumed that the harvest would be average, but it has now been determined that the harvest is much smaller than was expected. "To everyone that wants to sell organic potatoes we can only remind them that we will still be here tomorrow!," reports Monike Tietke from the BKE.
