News on The Potato Supply Chain from Belgium

Dewulf's 4-row sieving harvester Enduro has become more than an established player in the self-propelled harvester landscape in recent years.

La temporada de cultivo de 2023 trajo desafíos sin precedentes para los productores de semilla de papa en Europa. Condiciones climáticas desfavorables y una reducción en la superficie sembrada han provocado retrasos en la siembra, disminución de los rendimientos y una importante escasez de semilla.

During the last weeks, free buy prices from different North-western European quotations have dramatically fallen, no longer allowing to cover production costs. North-western European Potato growers (NEPG) respond.

The European seed potato industry has a long history of producing and supplying high-quality planting material to European and overseas growers.

Potato Europe 2023, recently held in Tournai, Belgium, became more international than we saw in the past years. Visitors from all around the world visited the event to see the latest European potato technologies.

The last 4 months was not easy going for the potato production in the NEPG region. But despite the difficult weather conditions, first yield estimates suggest a return to multi-year averages, with an estimated harvest of around 23 million tonnes of potatoes.

The 2023 edition of Potato Europe took place in Kain (Doornik), Belgium, last week. There, the full-liner in potato cultivation machines unveiled innovations in its product lines for both planting and storage.

Crop.zone, a pioneering agtech company, just announced the successful launch of its revolutionary hybrid herbicide technology in Canada.

DOWNS has extended its range of optical potato sorters with the arrival of the I-CropVision®: a modular version of the CropVision®, it incorporates the same technology and numerous benefits.

In keeping with the four-yearly tradition, one of the potato sector's most important trade fairs, Potato Europe, will soon again be held in Kain (Doornik), Belgium. Among a range of innovations Dewulf will present at Potato Europe 2023, the main eye catcher will be an entirely new cup planter, named Certa 40 Integral.

The North-western European Potato Growers (NEPG) estimate the area of ware potatoes has increased by 2 to 3%. This is slightly higher than the record in 2020, when it was 522.000 ha for the EU-4 (NL, BE, DE, FR).

To actively take charge of its products on the used market, AVR is launching a dedicated team and accompanying brand for its used agricultural machinery: AVR Green Select.

Europatat is proud to become an active partner of a new EU Horizon Europe project called PATAFEST that aims at protecting potato plants by means of pest spreading and resistance characterisation, preharvest treatments, and post-harvest solutions.

The sector-wide preference for potato planting and ridging in one working pass has never been greater. Dewulf has been responding to this demand for several years with the Smart-Float principle.

Following the success of the promotion campaign Potatoes, prepare to be surprised – Europe’s favourite since 1536 that was launched in 2020 and finished at the end of last year

In Belgium, Industriële Koeltechniek Roose (IKR) recently installed a new cooling and freezing system at potato specialist De Aardappelhoeve.

A recent report by the Global Coalition of Fresh Produce (GCFP) analyses the global trading environment for fresh fruits and vegetables and concludes a number of challenges threatening the long-term economic viability of the fresh produce sector worldwide.

Copa-Cogeca, Freshfel Europe, the European Fresh Produce Association, and Europatat, the European Potato Trade Association, have taken note of the European Commission’s proposal for a Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste that was published on 30 November 2022