Spain’s potato sector is set to create a new supervising committee to concentrate the country's offer in response to an expected oversupply from not only this season's Spanish potato harvest but also the European crop as a whole.
The Spanish potato producers' association Asonal, which met in Madrid earlier this week, has expressed its 'alarm' at what it described as the 'negative prospects' for this campaign due to low prices and an increase in potato volumes across Europe.
Asonal said in a statement that the Spanish potato crop for the summer and autumn campaign was expected to rise by as much as 15 per cent, which if realised would lead to an increase in production of some 250,000 tonnes compared with last year.
However, the potato association said the increase in Spanish production was likely to coincide with a rise in volumes in Europe as a whole, particularly in France, the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium.
By contrast, potato production in Poland is expected to fall this season, which Asonal's president, Roberto Ruiz, said 'could act as an escape value for the overproduction in other countries'.
Asonal said that Spain's early potato campaign, which has now concluded, had separately recorded negative results as a result of 'ruinous prices'.
The association said early potato producers, who are principally concentrated in the southern regions of Andalusia and Murcia, were also affected by an oversupply in northern Europe, which had led to plummeting returns for growers.
In response to the 'serious situation' facing producers, Asonal said that it would be forming a supervising committee to concentrate the country's offer and to address the problem of a 'lack of structure' in Spain's potato sector.
