Belgium: Mouscron Council Confronts Clarebout Plan to Close Mydibel Fries Plant, 392 Jobs at Risk
Clarebout, owned by J.R. Simplot since 2025, wants to shut its Mydibel site in Mouscron. Local reports put 392 jobs at risk and note €11.5 million in Walloon aid received by the group.
The municipal council of Mouscron in Wallonia debated on 22 September the plan by Belgian fries maker Clarebout Potatoes to close its Mydibel processing site in the town, according to regional dailies L’Avenir and La DH. Both papers report that 392 jobs are at risk: 54 salaried employees and 338 production workers. Of these, 85 live in Mouscron itself.
The closure is going through the Belgian “Renault procedure”, the legal consultation required before a collective dismissal. According to the reports, the company wants to move quickly through the procedure. Mayor Ann Cloet told the council that the municipality has no weight in the negotiations between management and unions.
The papers also note that Clarebout received €11.5 million in public support from the Walloon Region. Clarebout acquired Mydibel in 2022, and the US group J.R. Simplot acquired Clarebout in 2025.
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What the company says
When the plan was first announced on 8 September, Clarebout said the capacity of its group was 14 to 20% above expected demand, and that the Mouscron 1 site was its smallest and oldest plant, according to RetailDetail and AGF.nl. These figures are the company’s own assessment and have not been independently verified. Headlines in the Belgian press speak of “400 jobs”; the article texts give 392.
Context
Belgium is the world’s largest exporter of frozen potato products, and its processors expanded capacity sharply over the past decade. In spring 2026, surplus raw material from the 2025 crop pushed Belgian free-market prices for processing potatoes down to zero. The 2026 season looks different: a drought-hit harvest in north-west Europe has left processors short of raw material, yet the company still points to more capacity than demand.
Why it matters
Mydibel is the first large fries-capacity closure announced in Belgium since the 2025 surplus. It signals that at least one major group now sees structural overcapacity rather than a temporary glut. For growers in Wallonia and northern France who supply the site, the key question is whether their contracted volumes will be transferred to other Clarebout plants or lost. The outcome of the Renault procedure will show how quickly the sector is consolidating.
Photo: Mouscron town hall, Belgium (illustrative). Jean-Pol GRANDMONT / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5
