France: End of potato season with a twist
"On the free market, the end of the potato season is complicated. Prices have been falling dramatically since February," points out Luc Denormandie, in charge of new markets at Vitexport, the export arm of trader Vitalis.
For Luc Denormandie, several reasons explain a complicated end to the potato season:
" 1. Last year’s high production (around 800,000 tonnes more) is still weighing on stocks, especially since, with the lack of plants, all sorts of varieties were planted, which do not necessarily find a market today...
2. For the past four to five years, prices for free have been high at the end of the season, many believed that 2025 would be the same .
3. The French fries market has reached a plateau, customer demand for fries is declining, China and India are processing more.
4. There are many uncertainties in the global market, particularly regarding taxes.
5. Since the CIPC was discontinued, the visual quality of French potatoes at the end of the season may be a little less attractive . Our Spanish customers, who also produce more at home, know how to turn to other supplier countries.
6. Early crops and varieties are ahead of schedule, which does not help the sale of the old harvest.
As a result, free market prices fell from €300/t in February to €50/t at the end of June , for the same product quality... In certain sectors, stocks of consumer potatoes were released for animal feed, processing into flakes, or even methanization !
As global annual potato consumption continues to grow, this year’s bottleneck in France proves that the market needs to be consolidated . Vitalis is doing well in all this, the network’s stocks are empty or almost, and the producers, under contract, have been able to benefit on average from good product valuation," underlines Luc Denormandie.
Fuente:
