Demand for the free-buy supply of potatoes within the EU is still strong, however the availability is dwindling. The reason is that many farmers don’t have enough stocks to sell on the market for free-buy due to concerns about quality, which impeded storage as a result of the wet harvest of last year. The ones who have supplies know about the in short supply and anticipate an increase in rates. In order to replenish the supply contracted to buyers Buyers must raise their prices in order to motivate farmers to offer. The 27th of February, 2024, it was reported that the Mintec Benchmark Price (MBP) for Dutch processing potatoes was EUR37.5/100kg this was the highest value for the month of February since the series started in the year 2014. According to sources in the market the limited supply of potatoes is likely to sustain prices in the coming months as the year’s market progresses.
In the Netherlands The signs of shortage are beginning to show up within the processing industry. VAVI is the organization that processes potatoes within the Netherlands has processed 321.6 million tonnes of potato in the month of January 2024. This was a drop of 10.8 percent from the last year . The Netherlands has experienced a shortage of processed potatoes because of the difficulties of obtaining the necessary supplies from vendors. Dutch processing has been becoming increasingly dependent on the supply of neighboring countries. As of the month of January in 2024, 33.2 percent of the total production was imported in contrast to 21.4 percentage of imported goods for January 2023.
In addition, due to the heavy rain during harvest, a large portion of the potato crop was stored in soil that was saturated for a prolonged period of duration. According to the NEPG (North-Western European Potato Growers) estimates that about 650 000 tonnes were harvested and then placed in the ground but didn’t make it to the market. The potatoes that were picked in the moist weather are no longer adequate for long-term storage. This has meant that the stock of uncontracted supply is extremely scarce and processors have been battling against each other over the few supplies, which continues to increase prices.
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