Philippines Imports of Belgian Potato Products Quadrupled in 2018

The Philippines’ purchase of Belgian fries quadrupled to 30,000 metric tons last year, compared to some 9,000 metric tons it imported in 2010, revealed an export group cited by Business Mirror.

Original Belgian Fries (OBF), an organization of Belgian frozen potato products suppliers, said Southeast Asian countries have become Belgium’s largest market for potatoes in the past decades.

“The Asian region became a large target market for Belgian potatoes over the last decade, with Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines proving to be growing markets for potato products from Belgium,” the statement said.

OBF also noted fries and potato-related product shipments to the Philippines in the first half of the year have already reached 18,703 metric tons. The Philippines accounted for 37.4% of the 50,000 metric tons of fries and potato-related products shipped to Southeast Asian countries.

According to the export group the five largest Belgian suppliers are Agristo, Bart’s Potato Co., Clarebout Potatoes, Ecofrost and Mydibel.

To promote Belgian fries in the region, OBF said it supported the five-day Back to Basic Dip and Topping Challenge at Thaifex 2019 in Thailand, where every participant had to prepare two toppings and two dips to combine with Belgian-style fries.

Belgian suppliers will also showcase their potatoes at SIAL Interfood 2019 in Jakarta, Indonesia, from November 13-16.

While the Philippines imports a lot of fries from Belgium, the United States is the country’s top supplier of frozen fries, as it accounts for 45% of total purchases during the reference period. During the January-to-August period, the Philippines purchased about 49,000 metric tons of frozen fries from the U.S. worth USD46.878m, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed.