UNPT: “The Worst Potato Yield of the Century”
In France, the ware potato area has increased slightly in 2022 (152,500 ha, + 1% vs. 2021). Until mid-June, everything went well, even suggesting that 2022 could be one of the years with overproduction. But then the rain disappeared and repeated heat waves affected the crop.
“Areas with access to irrigation were able to salvage what needed to be salvaged, but those without irrigation will be hard hit this year. On average, the worst potato yield is expected since the beginning of the 21st Century,” Loïc Le Meur from Union Nationale des Producteurs de Pommes de Terre (UNPT) replied exclusively for Potatobusiness.com.
This low yield, combined with production costs that have been rising for several months, particularly since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, competition between crops in crop rotation, high prices for many agricultural products, and deteriorating cash flow on certain farms, raises concerns that potatoes will become less popular and the area under cultivation will shrink.
He declared also that for 2022, a certain number of producers will not be able to deliver their volumes to the industrialists or other operators with whom they have contracts.
“The UNPT recommends that they contact them as soon as possible. Depending on the contracts signed, they will be able to invoke Force Majeure, which will limit the negative effect of the year (otherwise, they will have to deliver the missing tons by buying them back on the free market at prices much higher than their contract price),” he concluded.
Potato Crisis: The UNPT Heard, the Government Awaited
Due to the present extraordinary circumstances - reduced potato harvest by at least -20% compared to the average of the last twenty years (1.5m tons less), and average losses of up to 50% on non-irrigated plots - a UNPT delegation was received by the French Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Sovereignty who wanted to share the situation with the producers.
During the meeting, the UNPT, through its representatives, made a request to the Minister for an “emergency plan and safeguarding potato production in France”, broken down into three parts. First, an emergency measure to maintain potato areas for 2023 by the establishment of a state-guaranteed loan to consolidate the weakened cash flow of producers, secondly, exceptional national and/or European financial aid to support producers most financially impacted by the drought, and finally an exceptional system rescue of the starch sector in France threatened with agricultural and industrial dismantling.
The UNPT once again emphasized the common and responsible commitment to work on these different options within deadlines that meet the need for urgency. For the UNPT, it is vital to engage quickly with the first short and medium-term measures that will enable France to maintain its rank as the world's leading potato exporter, a strategic rank for the defense of national and European food sovereignty.
In 2020, France was the third biggest potato producer in the EU.
