Avebe Starts the Potato Harvest Campaign

Potato starch producer Avebe has recently announced the start of the potato harvest campaign at its production location in Gasselternijveen. As well as potato starch, this location is also used to extract high quality protein from the potato for food applications.

Their other potato starch facilities in Ter Apelkanaal and the German Lüchow and Dallmin will follow suit a week later.

This campaign is starting in line with those of previous years. In view of how the growing season started, this has exceeded expectations. Excessive rainfall in the early spring caused difficulties with sowing the potatoes, and although it was possible to sow the first potatoes at the end of March, it took until May before the last potatoes were sown. For this reason, there have been large variations in crops since the beginning of the season. However, the growing conditions have been good since the end of May/beginning of June, which has gone some way towards compensating for the backlog at the beginning of the season.

Initial harvest measurements show a starch percentage that is in line with the long-term average. It is too soon, however, for a harvest forecast: the months of August and September will largely determine the ultimate yield. The decisive factors here are favorable weather conditions and a healthy crop that is provided with sufficient fertilizers.