Modest export season for Dutch seed potatoes

The export volume of Dutch seed for the 2020 harvest stands at 724,000 tons until the end of May. This is considerably lower than the five-year average, which for the 2015 to 2019 harvest year averages out at around 784,000 tons of seed potatoes on an annual basis. Incidentally, the final balance of the export season for seed potatoes can only be formally drawn up after the month of June. But normally no large quantities of seed potatoes are sold abroad in the last month. The lower export volumes are mainly attributable to North Africa, Eastern Europe and Turkey and Central America. In the case of overseas exports to the African continent, it is particularly striking that Algeria, normally one of the largest buyers of Dutch seed potatoes, has only purchased 44,000 tons. This is more than 40 percent less than last year. Hard currency outflow The Algerian government has imposed import quotas for various products to limit the outflow of hard currency. This measure has a major impact ...