News On French Fries and Potato Specialties from Belgium

Theme: ‘Let’s connect the potato chain in the post-coronavirus world’. 2020 will go down in history as 'the year of the coronavirus pandemic'.

Belgians are being called upon to eat fries at least twice a week as more than 750,000 tons of potatoes are at risk of being thrown away.

Last year, despite the difficult growing conditions as a result of the extreme heat and drought during both the 2018-2019 and the 2019-2020 seasons, the Belgian potato-processing industry once again improved the record for processed potatoes.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has dealt a blow to a, particularly Belgian market, as the country begins to see declining sales of the humble fries.

Due to COVID-19 the free market of potatoes has completely collapsed. The PCA/Fiwap and the Belgapom price quotation has been suspended because of a lack of transactions on the free market of potatoes.

The Service Public de Wallonie has granted a building permit for 'Mydibel Fresh', a new plant in Mouscron for the production of chilled french fries. The construction of Mydibel Fresh is part of the company’s strategy of sustainable development.

Dutch-based company Aviko, one of Europe’s biggest producers of fresh, frozen, dried and specialty potato products, has announced a major investment in its production capacity in Poperinge, Belgium.

On 4 and 5 September the international potato fair PotatoEurope 2019 will take place in
Tournai. That the fair continues to grow is demonstrated by the fact that there are almost
20% more exhibitors from 17 different countries.

Waterleau Group NV has successfully executed an important capital increase which secures the ambitious plans of the company for the future.

Sensor-based sorter manufacturer TOMRA offers their insights on the impact of sorting technology on food safety in the Potato Processing Industry

The potato cannot be burned from the news. This week it turned out that Belgian growers are settling in northern France because the Belgian area is almost exhausted.

Based upon a provisional estimation of the NEPG (North-Western European Potato Growers) the area in the 5 largest potato countries increased to 609.000 ha of consumption potatoes, a 2.4% increase.

The potato processing industry in Belgium registered record growth and processed over 5 million tonnes of potatoes in 2018. However, in 2019 the sector faces major challenges as a result of the poor harvest in 2018

Late last month, the entire potato sector once again gathered en masse at INTERPOM | PRIMEURS at Kortrijk Xpo.

De voorbije dagen was de volledige aardappelsector massaal verzameld op INTERPOM PRIMEURS in Kortrijk Xpo. Niet minder dan 19.508 bezoekers de beurs...

RMA Techniek has combined their capabilities in robotics, smart engineering and experience in the potato processing industry in a unique way: the company has specialized in the automated quality assessment of potatoes and shows its progress at Interpom.

At Interpom | Primeurs 2018, held in Kortrijk Xpo from November 25 -27, Kiremko will launch its latest innovation in the field of frying oil filtering: the Kiremko Primary Oil Filter.

Insort presents its first end-of-line sorter for frozen french fries at Interpom 2018 – the SHERLOCK HYBRID.