Belgium: Drought Exposes Heavy Reliance on Fontane as Researchers Say Robust Varieties Are Years Away
Fontane covers more than half of Belgium's potato area, yields are estimated 20% below average, and new varieties need at least five years of testing before processors list them.
This summer’s drought has shown how exposed Belgian potato growing is to a single variety, industry representatives and researchers told the Flemish agricultural news service VILT on 21 September. Fontane, the main frying variety, occupies more than 50% of the country’s potato area.
The farmers’ union Boerenbond estimates that 2026 yields per hectare will be 20% below the five-year average. According to VILT, a new variety needs at least five years of testing before processors add it to their standard list, which means any switch will be slow.
Stefanie Dumortier, agronomy director for Europe at the processor Agristo, said the robust potato that growers are hoping for does not yet exist. Ilse Eeckhout of the Viaverda research centre called for more diversification of varieties to spread the risk from nematodes, late blight, drought and heat.
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The warnings came as the North-Western European Potato Growers (NEPG) reported that tuber size and length this season are insufficient, Landbouwleven reported on 22 September. The growers’ group expects many producers in Belgium and France to fall short of their contracted volumes. It also expects early sprouting in storage and more pressure from Colorado potato beetle and stolbur, and it has asked traders and processors to show flexibility on quality and delivery specifications.
The concentration on one variety means the whole chain faces the same stress when the weather turns: growers, storage operators and factories are all working with the same tuber and the same weaknesses. potatoes.news has reported on the wider shortfall in processing potatoes across north-west Europe (see the supply outlook).
The timeline cited by the industry is the main obstacle: even after a promising variety is bred, the minimum five years of testing before listing means that new material has to prove itself across several seasons before processors will contract it.
Why it matters
Belgian processors depend on contract volumes from local growers. A shortfall in length and size this season hits both sides of those contracts. Diversifying varieties is widely accepted as the answer, but the people closest to the process say it will take at least five years to show up in the fields.
Photo: Preparing a field for potato planting (illustrative). Freddy de Hosdent / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
