French farmers give away potatoes due to overproduction
Hundreds of tonnes at risk of going to waste due to drop in demand and excess yield
Industrial demand for frozen potato-based goods has dropped. Photo for illustrative purposes only
Volodymyr Baleha/Shutterstock
Farmers in the north of France have given away hundreds of tonnes of potatoes following a bumper yield of the crop.
Instead of letting the crops go to waste, farmers have offered excess produce for free to nearby residents.
Several methods were used to spread the word, including Facebook posts on local town and village community pages.
In Monchy-le-Preux (Pas-de-Calais), the local mairie has allowed farmers to place massive crates of spuds outside the town hall for people to help themselves.
It is the latest in a series of excess crop yields in France, caused principally by a mild winter.
A large excess of cauliflowers and leeks were harvested during recent weeks, with supermarkets running special deals to help farmers sell the crops.
Spud demand drops
Christian Roussel, a farmer in nearby Penin (Pas-de-Calais) has given away 90 tonnes of potatoes to prevent them going to waste.
He has recently invested €350,000 in a storage shed for excess crop, but an end to supply contracts for regional factories coupled with the bumper potato yield has still left him with too much crop.
He is not the only farmer to suffer from the combined issues – industrial demand for potatoes is down due to a drop in sales of frozen goods.
In addition, the North-Western European Potato Growers network cites US tariffs, international competition, and a strong-performing euro (limiting the number of international purchasers) as contributing factors.
For Mr Roussel, potatoes only make up around 10% of his total output, meaning the loss of profits is a dent but not catastrophic.
For other producers however – who previously sold potatoes to industrial producers for around €150 - €200 per tonne – having hundreds of tonnes of the crop at risk of going bad is a significant problem.
New potato crops will be planted in April, however following recent waste farmers are looking towards reducing the number they plant, or making sure purchase contracts are in place for all of the crops prior to sowing.
