Belgium: The Weekly Belgian Price Quotation for Processing Potatoes Returns, but There Are No Trades Outside Contracts Yet
The Belgian association of potato traders and processors will again publish prices for two varieties, Fontane and Challenger, every Friday at 8 a.m. In the first three weeks of the season, there were too few trades outside contracts to set a price.
The Belgian trade association for potato trading and processing (belgapom.be) will publish a weekly price quotation for two potato varieties throughout the 2026-2027 season. The association announced this in a press release on 24 September. The quotation covers two potato varieties: Fontane and Challenger.
As in previous years, the prices will be published every Friday at 8 a.m. Belgian time. They are available on the website belgapomnotering.be and on the main website of the association, belgapom.be. The published price is the price most often paid for each variety on the previous working day or days. It is based on figures from traders and processors and does not include VAT.
The quotation covers a precisely defined product. These are potatoes suitable for processing into frozen French fries, with a minimum size of 35 mm. The grower supplies them in bulk, loaded onto a lorry, for immediate delivery or collection. Each weekly price also comes with an assessment of market sentiment on a five-step scale. The scale runs from weak (supply is greater than demand) through quiet, stable and steady to firm (supply is smaller than demand).
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“Clear price information benefits the entire potato supply chain,” said the chief executive of the association, Christophe Vermeulen. According to him, the weekly price will give growers, traders and processors a reliable reference for the spot market during the season.
So far, however, no price has been published. In weeks 36, 37 and 38, which ended on Friday 4, 11 and 18 September, the platform shows no price for either variety. The reason given is a lack of transactions. In the same weeks, the platform showed an average contract price of €133, €133 and €132 per tonne. In week 38 of 2025, the same figure was €175 per tonne.
The previous season looked very different. According to the archive on the quotation platform, the price for potatoes sold outside contracts stayed at €15 per tonne for most of the autumn and winter, and market sentiment was weak. It fell to €10 per tonne in March and to zero in April, and it stayed at zero until early June. Our report on this price collapse was published in April.
This year, drought has reduced the Belgian crop. Belgian growers expect yields well below average, and many of them may not be able to deliver their full contract volumes. In the neighbouring Netherlands, the price for potatoes for processing into French fries was €21–27.50 per 100 kg in mid-September, according to the quotation published by PotatoNL. Our report on the Dutch price was published on 23 September.
Why it matters
This quotation is the public reference price in Belgium for processing potatoes that are sold without a contract. As long as there is no price, growers and processors work almost only with contract deliveries. The first price of the season will appear only when enough potatoes are sold outside contracts. It will be the clearest signal of how much the drought has changed prices on the Belgian market.
Photo: A truck with a bulk load of potatoes in Prince Edward Island, Canada. The photo is not from Belgium (illustrative). Larry from Charlottetown / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
