Europe Faces Potato Oversupply

In the most recent trading week, market sentiment in the EU for potatoes was pessimistic. The majority of the delayed harvest is now accessible on the market, resulting in early and maincrop accessing the market at the same time, producing an oversupply.

“Many processing manufacturers have fulfilled their orders with contracted volumes, leaving little demand on the free-buy market. It is also expected by the NEPG that production in the 2023-2024 market year will increase compared to the previous MY. According to market sources, some growers are trying to offload their potatoes to the factories as soon as possible as there are quality issues,” according to a recent Mintec analysis.

The Mintec Benchmark price for Potato processing Fontane BE (MBP) was assessed at EUR125/MT, down EUR35/MT compared to the previous week.