750 THOUSAND TONS OF FRENCH FRIES WILL BE WIPED OUT IN BELGIUM

The legend states that more than 300 years ago, a method of cooking French fries was invented in Belgium. Whether that is true or not, but in the middle of the 19th century, a businessman named Frite began to sell Belgian delicacy, involuntarily giving the dish his own name in a slightly modified form. Since then, the food preferences of the Belgians have not changed, and for the visitors of the local restaurants, ordering a national dish was a matter of honor.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic provoked a serious crisis in the potato industry of Belgium.

The demand for food and, above all, for French fries, which is the country's national dish, fell by 80%.

Social restrictions and mass isolation led to the closure of restaurants throughout the country.

Belgium is also the largest exporter of frozen French fries. About 5 million tons of potatoes are annually processed in the country. If we take into account that the enterprises engaged in this business had an annual turnover of € 2 billion before the pandemic, it becomes clear that the industry needs to be saved.

The experts from the Flemish agricultural marketing agency, while researching the consumer behavior of the citizens, unexpectedly found out that Belgians do not cook French fries at home. Most people prefer to eat less fatty and healthier foods, even if it is made from potatoes.

In fact, this conclusion means that by June 2020, about 750 thousand tons of products will be at risk of being wiped out without a possibility of processing.

It is unnecessary to talk about the millions of losses that the farmers will incur.

As a result, the head of the Belgapom national association turned to the Belgians with a message about the need to save potatoes. On behalf of all potato processors, Roman Kuuls asked citizens to buy a little more potatoes so that they would not be wiped out. In fact, the inhabitants of the country were called to show a little more consumer solidarity, necessary in the current situation. The message was spontaneous as Kuuls only mentioned this in an interview. But the idea of "eating more potatoes" and thereby saving Belgian farmers was picked up by many lovers of French fries around the world.

Now the head of the association is considering the possibility of launching a separate advertising campaign in the country's grocery stores with the slogan “Save Our Spuds”.

According to him, in the current situation, the farmers who worked under contracts with processing enterprises were more fortunate. The situation is much worse for those farmers who produced goods for the market. The price of potatoes fell almost 20 times: now a centner of potatoes in Belgium can be purchased just for € 1. 

The likelihood that a significant portion of Belgian potatoes will be wasted remains high. According to the experts, a certain proportion of the vegetable crop can be used to feed animals, and the other will become the basis for the production of electricity. Some enterprises in the country consume the energy, produced exclusively from potato waste. However, even such ways of using resources do not fundamentally change the situation. For the first time in the history, the potato producers have turned to the government and EU authorities for help.

Given that the restaurants in Belgium and other countries will remain closed until at least June, it will be difficult to save potatoes.

The Belgapom Association is currently developing a social program - 25 tons of products per week will be transferred to special “Food Banks”, and distributed to the families that are below the poverty line due to the crisis. In Belgium, there are about 460 of such "banks." Thus, the manufacturers hope to save at least part of the national wealth, produced by the local farmers.