Following a particularly rainy and delayed harvest in Northern Europe, growers are trying to shift late-harvested potatoes that were left in the saturated ground for long periods, which has increased the amount of spuds available on the market.

The market has seen little upward movement due to the flood of these lower-quality potatoes that are being sold straight from the field to the processor; on December 12, the Mintec Benchmark Prices for Dutch processing Potatoes were evaluated at EUR207.50/mt, remaining constant week over week (w-o-w).

“The worst affected regions have been the Netherlands and Belgium with the NEPG stating that 15% and 11% of the Dutch and Belgian crops were still in the ground on 24th November. Although the harvest has continued market sources have commented that with the wet weather forecast in December, they expect a proportion of the remaining crop to be abandoned,” the latest Mintec report reveals.

Market participants projected that prices will increase after processors have made use of the late-harvested crop, characterizing the stable market as “temporary.” Market players anticipate tight free-buy availability for the balance of the season due to a larger than-usual percentage of the crop needing to be processed early in the season.