Sawt Falasteen - Record potato harvest is no boon in fries-mad Belgium

With almost all potatoes plucked from the ground, the European nation is set to produce about five million tonnes of the tubers, up 11 percent on 2024 and just short of half a tonne per inhabitant, according to farming group Belpotato.

The milestone comes on the back of a steady rise in potato-farmed land fuelled by the country's world-beating frozen fries industry, which is now feeling the pinch of US tariffs and growing competition from Asia.

"We are at a tipping point," Belpotato's secretary Pierre Lebrun told AFP. "Global markets have been buying fewer European fries".

Fried potatoes are a national dish and symbol of pride in Belgium.

Dotted by "friteries" or "frituren" -- diners specialising in the stuff with names like Fritapapa and Frit'city -- the country has turned its taste for fried sticks into a huge commercial success.

The industry has expanded rapidly over the past decade, and Belgium is currently Europe's biggest producer and the world's largest peddler of what the British call chips.

In 2024 the country exported more than three billion euros ($3.5 billion) worth of cooked and frozen potato products, a three-fold increase on 2015, according to European Union data agency Eurostat.

A steady global appetite and a fast-food boom in Asia and the Middle East have spurred investments, said Christophe Vermeulen, the head of trade group CEO Belgapom.

"As a commodity, fries are always very popular. When the population grows and the middle class grows, the demand for fries grows as well," said Vermeulen.

"And obviously every time something fast food-ish opens in the world, they need fries."

- 'Reset mode' -

As factories sought to churn out more and more fries, potato prices reached a historic high over the past couple of years -- spurring a farming craze.

Farmers bought more land or rented it out from neighbours to plant potatoes, said Lebrun.

Producers in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany, which also supply Belgian fries manufacturers, added 40,000 hectares to their plots this year, a seven-percent increase on 2024, according to industry figures.

A similar hike was recorded the previous year.

It seemed "the sky was the limit", Lebrun said.

But the situation has now come to a head.

Frozen fries-makers -- who eat up the lion's share of Belgian potatoes -- have been hit by a triple whammy of import tariffs in key market the United States, a strong euro hurting exports and the emergence of rivals in India, China and Egypt, said Vermeulen.

Frozen fries exports were down 6.1 percent in the year ending June 30, industry figures show.

Most potatoes are sold through seasonal contracts agreed before the harvest. On the the so-called free market however -- where the remainder are sold -- record production has sent prices crashing to about 15 euros a tonne.

That is down from the peak they hit last year of about 600 euros.

"It's going to be a difficult year," Baudouin Dewulf, a grizzled farmer in Geer, eastern Belgium, said. He lamented the "saturated market" as a harvester loaded an avalanche of potatoes onto a truck in a field behind him.

While seasonal contracts with fries manufacturers are protecting the income of many farmers, some will have to rethink their investments and brace for tough negotiations next year.

"The Belgian potato industry is in a reset mode," said Vermeulen.

S.Barghouti--SF-PST