UPDATED SITUATION FRESH POTATOES

As informed in previous news flash, this is the first season (harvest season 2020/21) in which the use of CIPC derivated sprout inhibitors is strictly forbidden by the EU.
Some 3 months after the first intake of freshly harvested potato tubers, there are clear indications that the alternative sprout inhibitors are not as efficient as the products containing CIPC.

Already at this moment farmers in Belgium, the Netherlands and France are reporting sprouting activity on the tubers in their air conditioned stores.
Bearing in mind that neither the fresh market, nor the processing industry can make use of potato tubers showing sprouts, there is a good deal of likelihood that the entire industry
will be facing another nightmare in the following weeks and months. Especially once winter is over and the outside temperature starts climbing up again, there will be no possibility to
stop tubers from sprouting and start a self-deterioration process.

When taking possible losses of volumes of available fresh potatoes into account on top of the fact that farmers are expected to plant some 15% less acreage in the new season 2021/22, we
would not be surprised if March/April brings a complete turnaround in today’s situation of potato products. We recommend our customers to remain extremely vigilant.
Last but not least the ocean freight has become very unstable on all lines due to reduced amounts of empty containers resulting in sharply increased seafreights.
As 1+1+1 = 3, we do not exclude sudden price increases in springtime 2021.

Posted in Geen categorie.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.