“Better give us a lot of snow,”
Due to the wet autumn, there are still many potatoes in the Zeeland soil. This makes the clay too heavy for the harvesting machines. That should not cause any problems, but with the frost approaching, farmers still fear that (part of) their harvest will be lost. “Better give us a lot of snow,” says arable farmer Arno Vael.
Vael still has 25 hectares of potatoes in the ground at Zaamslag. If it were up to him, they would have been harvested long ago and were now either in his barn or on a plate. Until Christmas he hoped to harvest his potatoes, but the soil remained too wet and therefore impossible to work.
Little has changed in that situation two months later. He takes a few potatoes out of the ground by hand. With difficulty he gets the clay off the potatoes and his hands. “Can you imagine that a machine has difficulty with that to harvest this? They shut down completely. So it is impossible to get these potatoes out.”
It’s sad to say, but I’d rather let them go and we’ll see. “Arno Vael
After Christmas, Vael took the plunge. He waits until spring to harvest. Then it is drier and easier. “And then hopefully the market will have recovered a bit.” Partly because of the closed catering industry, the demand for potatoes (for fries, ed.) Has dropped. As soon as it is allowed to open again, demand will pick up again, is expected.
It is also cheaper to leave the potatoes in the ground. Because of the collapsed demand, the cost price per kilo of potatoes is 20 cents higher than the price he can get for it when sold. “It’s sad to say, but I’d rather let them go and we’ll see.” The potatoes remain well intact under the ground.
Cold potatoes
But then it shouldn’t freeze for a longer period of time. That is why he is also slightly anxious about the predicted temperatures for the coming week. “But I have yet to see it,” he says firmly. “Experience shows that it is always a bit warmer here in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen than in the rest of the country.”
One or two days and nights of frost is not a disaster for his potatoes. “In principle, a potato can have 52 hours of frost in theory. 52 hours a degree below zero. And at two degrees below zero that halves“, explains Vael. But the meteorologists predict a longer period with more severe frost.
“They also say it will snow”, says Vael. And that could be a rescue. “I want a lot of snow to fall, because that has an insulating effect.”
