The record year of 2016 for the Belgian potato-processing industry continued into 2017, according to Belgapom, the Belgian potato trade and processing industry association.
During the past few years, the Belgian potato industry developed into one of the fastest growing sectors in the Belgian food industry. Partly thanks to the significant investment in capacity and quality, this trend continued in 2017. Thus last year 4.57 million tonnes of potatoes (+ 3.6 %) were processed into fries, crisps, croquettes, flakes, granules and other potato products.
What is noticeable in 2017 is the exceptional increase in products other than fries (crisps, croquettes, mash products, flakes, etc.), which evolved from 468,513 to 690,159 tonnes (+ 47.5%).
The share of frozen and fresh fries rose from 1.91 million tonnes to 1.99 million tonnes (+ 4.3 %), however the share of fresh refrigerated fries fell by 3.5 %.
For the season 2017-2018 statistics show with 5,11 million tons of potatoes an absolute record harvest for Belgium. This increase in resulting from the increase in planted area, the choices of varieties and the influence of weather conditions. The figures published by Belgapom relate to the calendar year of 2017, which spans two potato seasons (2016-2017 and 2017-2018).
But what is certainly fanning the optimism in the sector is the fact that in 2017 the record sum of over 305 million euros invested in the potato-processing sector was almost equalled (-1.3 %). Employment in the sector once gain also grew by 7.1 % (4,410 units).
According to the latest statistics, Belgium remains by far the largest exporter of frozen potatoes in the world in 2017 with 2.2 million tonnes. The share of third countries continues to increase.