Belgian Yields Down Up to 35%, but Quality Potatoes Should Fetch Strong Prices — De Aardappelhoeve

European potato yields have fallen 25–35 percent after a hot, dry summer and a 17 percent cut in planted area, says Bart Nemegheer of Belgium’s De Aardappelhoeve — but with quality holding up and stocks thin across the continent, good potatoes should command above-average prices this season.

The European potato sector is closing out an unusual season. After a very dry, hot summer curbed tuber growth, yields have disappointed across many regions — yet quality is generally good and harvesting conditions were favourable. According to Bart Nemegheer of De Aardappelhoeve, the Tielt-based Belgian potato company, the combination of lower yields and reduced plantings sets up a tighter market in the months ahead.

“The total area under cultivation has shrunk by 17 percent, and yields on many farms are 25 to 30 percent lower, with some cases as high as 35 percent. That certainly makes it a remarkable year,” Nemegheer told FreshPlaza. On quality, he is satisfied: few to no problems, and a good-looking product. Harvesting itself went unusually smoothly — just enough rain to start, then a steady pace with only occasional showers. “We were able to harvest even the last fields with ease. The soil structure was good, and the potatoes came out of the ground nicely, without many clods.”

The shortfall is not Belgian alone. Drought and heat have hit production across large parts of Europe, with particularly significant consequences in France, where a production drop of more than two million tonnes is being reported. France traditionally serves as the breadbasket for Italy and Spain — themselves growing fewer ware potatoes because of the heat — and French stocks are now far from full. Eastern Europe shows the same pattern of drought and heat cutting yields. Several countries, Nemegheer expects, may soon have to look for potatoes on the international market.

For now, though, the export market remains cautious: buyers are drawing on locally available potatoes first, and only when those stocks run low will true cross-border demand become clear. Nemegheer expects season prices above average. “There has been a significant drop in production and the area under cultivation has shrunk considerably. Normally, this should cause prices to rise. Anyone with good-quality potatoes is likely to get a good price next season.” That would be more than welcome after the difficult 2025 season, when substantial oversupply hit open-market sellers hard and a significant share of accumulated profits was lost. He frames the contract-versus-open-market choice as a multi-year trade-off: contracts gave certainty last year, while this year they limit the upside as the open market strengthens.

De Aardappelhoeve’s structure — cultivation, sorting, packaging and trading managed in-house — lets it flex volumes between the fresh market and The Potato Chef, its fresh-cut and prepared convenience range, which continues to grow. Specific varieties are grown for processing (round, firm, low-moisture potatoes for packaged convenience products), sourced partly from local growers and partly imported from Germany and the Netherlands; batches unsuitable for the fresh market shift into peeling and processing, and vice versa.

The convenience trend underpins the strategy. Pre-washed, chopped, seasoned and pre-cooked products keep taking shelf space from unprocessed produce, and product development is shifting from single-variety packs toward flavours, seasonings and preparation concepts. De Aardappelhoeve sees continued growth in Belgium, long-term interest in the UK, and active expansion in Germany — already working with one supermarket and in talks with another — where younger consumers are moving toward convenience despite a traditionally conservative, cook-it-yourself potato culture.