The amount of processed potatoes, into chips and other products, has been on the rise for several months since the Corona Valley this spring. In the past two months, processing is still around 7 percent behind compared to the months of September and October of 2019. This is shown by the monthly figures of the VAVI, the Association for the Potato Processing Industry.
In October 2020, a total of 340,100 tons of potatoes were processed into potato consumer products, according to the VAVI. In October 2019 this was still 364,000 tons. This means that 6.6 percent (24,000 tons) less potatoes were processed in October 2020 than in the same month of 2019. The low point was reached in April 2020 when only 192,500 tons of potatoes were processed, compared to 329,600 tons in April 2019 (- 41.5 percent) .
Twelve-month average
During the period November 2019 to October 2020, the Dutch potato processing industry processed 3,447,600 tons of potatoes, compared to 3,846,800 tons in the period November 2018 to October 2019. This is a decrease of almost 400,000 tons (-10.4 per cent). The months of November to February were still fairly stable in both periods. Due to the global corona crisis, potato processing collapsed from March 2020.
