Potato Markets Weekly

摘要

Heavy rain has fallen in many Continental countries and harvest difficulties are preventing any dip in prices. While the German and British markets are steady, the French reference price has risen to 300/tonne EUR (￡203/tonne) and Belgapom did not issue a quotation because there were insufficient market transactions. Italian prices have risen at an unusually early stage of the seasons. Secondary growth is being reported to a greater or lesser extent in most countries and processors are clearly facing severe supply problems. The Hanover April 2007 processing contract price has recovered sharply this week, closing at 264/tonne EUR today. Forward trade on the physical market remains minimal because of the acute uncertainties. The German farmers' unionDBV is expecting a 20-25% harvest reduction compared with 2005. This year's Portuguese harvest is again likely to be only just above 0.5 million tonnes compared with 0.89mt in 1999. In this issue we review the German early potato season and report on the start of the starch processing season in Austria. If there is a single product which has the potential to turn the tide of European public opinion in favour of GM crops, it should be a blight-resistant GM potato. If this were to be successful in coping with the main strains of the disease, then the environmental advantages would be huge. But German chemical company Bayer is still likely to face opposition to its application to carry out two GB trials of a blight-resistant variety next year.