{"id":449608,"date":"2026-04-07T12:35:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T10:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/04\/07\/i-belgi-stufi-delle-patate-fritte-crolla-la-domanda-e-il-prezzo-precipita-a-zero-euro\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:21:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:21:49","slug":"belgians-fed-up-with-french-fries-demand-collapses-and-prices-fall-to-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/04\/07\/belgians-fed-up-with-french-fries-demand-collapses-and-prices-fall-to-zero\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgians fed up with French fries: demand collapses and prices fall to zero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Zero euros per tonne, in some cases just a little more. A typical \u2018Nordic\u2019 food is now worthless in Belgium, where it is typically served with mussels. According to the price index published by the trade association Belgapom (a French-language portmanteau of \u2018Belgium\u2019 and \u2018potato\u2019), <\/strong> the price of potatoes intended for industrial processing has fallen to zero<\/strong><\/b>, whilst that of potatoes for consumption<\/strong><\/b>, grown for long-term storage, has been falling for months due to low demand and dropped to 10 euros per tonne in March.<\/strong><\/b> <\/p>\n

The Belga news agency reports this price applies to table potatoes sold on the open market to French fry producers<\/strong>. Between 70 and 80 percent of the harvest had been tied up for months at a higher contract price, but the rest was offered on the open market. <\/p>\n

No one has set a price in recent weeks because transactions have not occurred. “Farmers have sold their potatoes, but for 0 euros,” explains Christophe Vermeulen, CEO of Belgapom. “Selling is better than burying or destroying them.”<\/p>\n

Many growers face large surpluses due to a lack of demand,<\/strong> resulting in hundreds of thousands of tonnes in stock,<\/strong> even though several months remain in the table potato season. <\/p>\n

Leading French fry manufacturers have ample stocks, while global market competition is intensifying. Processing potatoes into animal feed or biofuels is only a limited option. <\/p>\n

Although basic raw materials cost nothing, retail prices are not expected to change<\/strong>. The surplus concerns potatoes used by industrial processors for frozen French fries, while higher prices are paid for table potatoes grown for direct consumption.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, producers have resorted to short\u2011time work schemes and\/or weekend shutdowns to curb production.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The problem mainly concerns industrial products, which are intended for what was once a thriving market<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":449592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25709],"tags":[25801,33684],"class_list":["post-449608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agrifood-en","tag-belgian-cat-en","tag-patate"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":449609,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449608\/revisions\/449609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}