In the potato there is no shortage, quite the contrary. Since March 15, the date of the closure of restaurants, fast-food restaurants and school canteens, producers have been left with a surplus of 450,000 tonnes, half of which was intended for the French processing market and the rest for export.
For the past few weeks, professionals have been trying to get rid of it as quickly as possible so as not to saturate the warehouses which, next September, will have to accommodate the new crops.
“A small part has been sold in retail in alternative circuits, but the bulk of this stock, about 250,000 tonnes, may be spread in the fields if no solution is found by the summer,” explained Bertrand. Ouillon, delegate of GIPT, clarifying that this represents a shortfall of 200 million euros for producers.
Pay for transportation and logistics
However, there is no shortage of solutions. Most of this surplus is already of interest to farmers who fear a lack of fodder caused by drought. The energy sector could also take part in order to anaerobic digestion. Finally, the starch manufacturers are ready to take a small share too. But these solutions could cost the industry another 35 million euros, says GIPT.
“Transport and logistics cost the most, stocks are in the north and breeders are in the west and center. We also need to deliver energy producers. As for starch manufacturers, they will need their ask to open this summer, but producers will have to keep stocks for another three months while the potato season will resume, “says Bertrand Ouillon.
“Who will pay the 35 million euros necessary to cover the costs?” Asked the delegate of GIPT. France and Europe pass the file like a hot potato. Professionals in the sector have requested financial assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture, which considers that the matter is the responsibility of Europe. “But Brussels tells us that this is a French issue,” laments the GIPT, which fears that this surplus will end up in the fields.
Too expensive to give and impossible to sell in stores
Donate them to charity? Yes, but the bagging costs remain high. Selling to individuals in stores and markets? The option was rejected.
“It is unacceptable to initiate on the French fresh market, clearing operations of potatoes which were not initially intended for our market. These volumes would cause an unnecessary excess of supply on a market today at l ‘balance’, replied Luc Chatelain, President of the National Interprofessional Potato Committee (CNIPT), the organization in charge of the fresh produce markets.
For Bertrand Ouillon, the situation is serious. First economically, but also, if no solution is found, it could have health and environmental consequences. “The risk is to see the development of wild deposits of potato waste in the wild, which are vectors of infectious foci of fungal diseases or pollution by fermentation”, fears the delegate of GIPT.
France, which produces 6 to 7 million tonnes of potatoes per year, is also the world’s leading exporter of the tuber.
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