Potato Markets Weekly

摘要

The extent of the processing quality problems this season is apparent from the fact that no official price quotations are being issued in either France, Belgium or the Netherlands. Few samples can reach the standards of 360g underwater weight and 60%of tubers being over 50mm. Only Germany and Britain are still quoting, and the indications here are that the harvest pressure has come to an end and the market should be about to turn. Polish prices were however still declining at the turn of the month.Price of the April processing contract has surged at Hanover, with today's closing price of EUR322/tonne comparing with last week's low of EUR286/t on Wednesday. Trade volume has totalled 934 contracts for the first two days compared with 1 163 contractsover the whole of last week. Italian growers should do particularly well this season because it is estimated that ware potato production will be 3.2% up this year, at 1.45 million tonnes. But the Spanish harvest is put at only 2.45mt in the latest estimates and this year's Austrian harvest of a provisional 631 100t would be the second smallest of the past decade. Dutch output of pre-cooked products was stable in August, while increased manufacturing of products other than pre-cooked resulted in extra usage compared with August 2005. But the companies will clearly be facing a struggle to match the heavy volumes which were processed through the autumn of last year.