Germany has replaced Belgium as the largest buyer of Dutch seed potatoes for the 2021-2022 marketing season. This is evident from the final figures for seed potato exports released by the Dutch Potato Organization (NAO).
Germany bought 112,300 tonnes of Dutch seed potatoes from the 2021 harvest. This is 14,000 tonnes and 14 percent more than last year. For Belgium, seed potato sales fell by around 10 percent to 90,600 tonnes. Algeria is the third buyer with 86,800 tonnes of seed potatoes this year.
It is Total export volume of Dutch seed potatoes This year it is 736,400 tonnes. That’s a fraction more than last year’s exports, but 3.5 percent less than seed potato exports from the 2019 harvest. Exports to Asia were disappointing this year, mostly to African countries.
As far as Africa is concerned, the most seed potatoes this year were sent to Algeria (+95 percent) and Egypt (+50 percent). In Asia, countries such as Iraq (-32 percent), Uzbekistan (-46 percent) and Saudi Arabia (-46 percent) resulted in significantly lower export volumes.
Sales of Dutch seed potatoes in the EU were almost unchanged. In the rest of Europe, it’s worth noting that 4,100 tonnes of seeds were sold to the UK less than last year’s 15,100 tonnes, due to all sorts of Brexit issues. Also, Russia bought 3,200 tons of seed potatoes of Dutch origin, slightly more than last year.
