Early potatoes on the fresh market : why we also need imported earlies.
Consumers in Belgium will have noticed that in most supermarkets currently also packed early potatoes originating from the Mediterranean area are being offered. Also the Flemish media have spent attention to this.
Belgapom has presented the following explanation for this phenomenon :
1) Traditionally the fresh potato market in Belgium starts by the end of May / beginning of June by packing imported earlies originating from Cyprus, Israel and Malta. The consumer is looking to accompany his asparagus dish by early potatoes. After a number of weeks the origin of the early potatoes turns to Spain and Germany. Only in July and August early potatoes from Belgian appear on the shelves.
This can be explained by the fact that potatoes from the old crop destined to the fresh market are being stored in cold stores (avoiding chemical sprout suppressants such as CIPC), which results at the end of the storage season into modification in the starch patron of the crops. The cooking water gets a brown colour and potatoes get a sweet taste.
On top most of the firm cooking varieties of the old Belgian crop are sold out, partly because of the increased sales resulting from a higher level of home consumption of potatoes since the outbreak of the Corona crisis and the lockdown measures.
2) The segment of flowery cooking potatoes and potatoes for home fries from Belgian crop can under normal conditions be offered for a longer time. But due to the exceptional growing conditions during the last summer (heath and drought) the dry matter content in a lot of these varieties (fontane, challenger, and others) appears to be exceptional high, which is resulting into a lot of quality problems resulting from transport, sorting, washing and packing of the tubers (black spots under the skin).
These potatoes, stored in storage facilities at certain temperatures (also to mitigate the creation of acrylamide during frying), are in most cases perfect for transport and processing in factories into refrigerated or frozen products after only 3 hours.
As a consequence of this situation this season also flowery potatoes for cooking or frying originating from the Mediterranean countries will be found earlier than normal in the shelves of the Belgian supermarkets.
3) Belgian early potatoes will be available in the months of July and August. Also this crop is not always suited for packing and selling on the fresh market : the potatoes are being harvested ‘green’, which results in a very thin skin, which makes them not suited for sorting, washing and packing. Also these potatoes head to the factories to be washed, peeled, cut, fried and refrigerated. These early varieties are being used for fritery shops, restaurants and production of frozen products. Fresh early potatoes, with a thin skin from local production remain a niche product on Belgian markets, with a limited demand.
Belgian professional packers and their growers assure the consumers of a top product all year round. Despite falling back in the summer months (a period with a lower consumption of fresh potatoes) they are responsible for the fact that on annual basis more than 70 % of all purchased fresh potatoes are of Belgian origin (source : GfK / VLAM).
