There is currently more interest in the potato futures market in potatoes from the 2021 harvest than in the free potato from last year’s harvest.
The ongoing lockdown measures are still causing many restrictions on the current potato market, according to stock exchange broker De Vries & Westermann. There is little physical trade. It seems that the French fries industry produces appropriately and has sufficient raw material at its disposal.
PotatoNL recorded 6.50 to 7.50 euros per 100 kilos this week for potatoes suitable for chips in category I. That is more than 60 cents less than last week. On the futures market, the quotation for the April 2021 contract fell last month from 9 euros to just under 6 euros per 100 kilos. The optimism of the first period after the turn of the year thus appears to be short-lived.
Uncertainty about acreage
It is remarkable that there is a lot of interest on the futures market in the delivery contracts for potatoes for the coming harvest. This indicates that the market is uncertain about the potato area for this season. The quotation for the April 2022 contract rose at the EEX in Leipzig last week from 16.50 to 17.40 euros per 100 kilos. De Vries & Westermann points out that the number of open positions for potatoes still to be planted is historically high at almost 2,000 on the futures market.
