Potato growers are facing a number of factors which can no longer be denied and which mean a brutal breach with the past.

• climatic changes have caused a much higher frequency of long, hot and dry summers, leading to considerable loss of yield per hectare in the past 10 years;
• the access to irrigation waters has become a bottle neck, as governments consider society problems as being of a higher level, than agricultural needs; water has become a cost price factor;
• environmental rules and presence of nitrates in the soils are limiting or abolishing the use of fertilizers and pesticides; do yields of 60 tons per hectare belong to the history books ?
• the traditional anti-sprouting agents are no longer allowed and alternatives are by far not as efficient as the chlorpropham containing products were, hence a lot more waste;
• lack of rotation of cultures on the same soils reduce yield and increase risks for diseases and harvest failures;
• shortage of cereals, mainly wheat and corn, linked to the situation in Ukraine, encourage flour mills to considerably increase the prices offered to farmers, creating serious competition with the culture of potatoes, which enhances a lot more risks and costs (growth, keeping free from diseases, warehousing in temperature controlled barns, etc…);