Belgians asked to eat fries twice a week to keep up with spud surplus

The lockdown measures have led to a mass surplus of spuds, according to Romain Cools, secretary general of Belgian potato industry body Belgapom. It's about 750,000 tonnes of extra potatoes, enough to fill the cargos of 30,000 transport trucks.

The frozen potato sector has taken a big hit and is largely the source of the problem as it accounts for about 75 percent of Belgium's potato processing. Inventories continued to build up as storage space became more limited. Belgapom has asked the fine citizens of Belgium to eat more fries than they are already known to do in order to mitigate the problem.

“We’re working with supermarkets to see whether we can launch a campaign asking Belgians to do something for the sector by eating fries — especially frozen fries — twice a week during the coronavirus crisis,” said Cools. “What we are trying to do is to avoid food waste, because every lost potato is a loss.”

The other 25 percent of the potato industry is devoted to fresh potatoes or used to make snack products and has remained stable throughout the lockdown because people are cooking and snacking at home, now more than ever.

Belgium's lockdown measures have been in place nationwide since March 18. The country currently has 46,687 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus and 7,207 deaths, as stated by Johns Hopkins University.

Belgium plans to ease their lockdown measures in three separate stages, beginning on May 4, with certain business opening. Bars and cafes and won't be able to open until June 8, according to Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes.

Once the lockdown measures have been removed, many summer events and festivals will remain cancelled, much to the chagrin of potato producers who rely on those events to keep their products moving. Cools believes his industry is "definitely" going to face an economic hit for the months to come.

“To be very honest, the effect on potato consumption will probably last for months, and we can only try to find solutions where the solutions are — for us in Belgium, that could be pushing home consumption,” he said. “We’ve also asked farmers not to plant that many potatoes for the next season because we believe this season will take some extra months away from next year by postponing processing.”

So far, food banks in Central Europe and Africa have been receiving the potatoes that could not be processed, otherwise they are made into animal feed or processed to be biofuel. However, Cool said these alterations are still costing the industry a lot.

“We’re also afraid of the second wave of coronavirus — we all are aware of the fact that the outbreak will perhaps never finish,” he said. “It won’t be over for sure until we have a vaccination program running, and that may not be until the beginning of next year.”

“A lot of people are really optimistic in my country and in the potato sector,” he added. “But to be very honest, as we say in Dutch, I’m holding my heart for the months to come.”

Cools said that Belgium was having a “wonderful” potato season prior to the pandemic breaking out.

“It’s not always the case that I can say the potato season is wonderful because most of the time there are too many or there are not enough potatoes on the market,” he said. “The industry was doing well, exports were doing well — then in mid-March, the whole thing collapsed. Potatoes dropped from about 135 euros ($146) per ton to 15 euros per ton.”

For the first time in history, the potato industry there is going to have to turn to the European Commission for support.

“In 30 years, I’ve never been in contact with the commission to try to find solutions or subsidies for supporting the industry — we’ve never asked for anything,” he said. “What we’re experiencing now has never happened in the potato sector in Europe. This is a risk nobody could have thought of.”