Christophe Vermeulen: The Race to the Bottom Has to Stop

The 20th edition of INTERPOM, the trade fair for the entire potato chain, was finally held a year later on 28, 29 and 30 November 2021 in Kortrijk Xpo.

The event welcomed 11,768 visitors during the three days of the trade fair. This means that the number of visitors was lower than in the previous edition, but this was to be expected given the numerous measures, quarantines and complications in international traffic. This also affected the attendance of foreign guests, with fewer visitors from the Netherlands, Germany and other non-European countries.

The visitors present at the trade fair were mainly targeted professionals who had come to INTERPOM with clear objectives, investment plans and the desire to learn about the latest market developments in the potato chain. Christophe Vermeulen, Belgapom's CEO agreed to share some insights with Potato Processing International about the trade show and the organization's future strategy.

Tell us about this edition of Interpom and about how the industry in general feels about the COVID pandemic.

Well, of course there was a lot of anxiety for the last couple of weeks. I began this job in January of this year and we had already postponed Interpom from last year because of the pandemic - and the industry did not really like that because especially in COVID times we feel it is necessary to meet each other in order to do business. Like every other sector, the potato sector suffered in different capacities. First of all, it was the exports that declined at the beginning of COVID March last year, and then we saw a surge in consumer potatoes because everybody was at home. Later on, of course, with the restaurants closing up, it was very difficult for some companies such as potato processors that could not market their products.

So there was an overcapacity of frozen product. The freezers were full and the processors could not process anymore because there was no export, so everything stopped, everything was stuck. And we had declining prices for the farmers since they could not sell on the free market anymore because there was nothing to produce, nothing to process anymore.

In the end we made a deal with the industry last year that we were all going to fulfill every contract we had. So all the potatoes eventually found their way to market. And there was even a call from Belgapom for the general public to eat fries twice a week, which had impressive results.

Considering all that, we are very, very happy that this year we can get together at Interpom. Around 98% of the spots were filled, and in the last couple of weeks, there were just a couple of exhibitors that cancelled. But we still have 318 exhibitors and that was a big sigh of relief for everyone, actually. And as I see, looking around me, business is going steady and good. And that was what we wanted.

You can read the rest of this article in your complimentary e-copy of theSeptember/October Issue of Potato Processing International magazine, which you can access by clickinghere.