Bumper potato harvests spell crisis for European farmers

After bumper harvests, Europe is facing a potato overproduction crisis, leading to a precipitous drop in prices, which is hitting farmers hardest. Photo by Nicolas TUCAT/AFP via Getty Images/Postmedia files

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More than twenty tonnes of potatoes were dumped in front of the National Assembly in Paris last month, heaped into piles and peppered with French and trade union flags, in a vivid display of farmers’ frustrations.

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“It costs us less to give these potatoes to Parisians than to store them ourselves,” Denis Lavenant, a farmer from the Yvelines region, told AFP.

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Belgian farmers also handed out potatoes to passers-by on a Flanders highway, coupled with leaflets denouncing crashing prices and EU free trade agreements.

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The sector is facing a “real challenge this year”, Francois-Xavier Broutin, the director of economic affairs at CNIPT, which represents the French potato industry, told AFP.

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Employees of an agricultural cooperative sort potatoes after harvesting in Geer, eastern Belgium on September 26, 2025. Photo by Nicolas TUCAT/AFP via Getty Images

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French fry trade wars

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The North-Western European Potato Growers (NEPG) network, which brings together the four leading European producers (Germany, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands), has been warning about overproduction on the continent for months.

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In these countries, which account for two-thirds of European production, the volumes harvested in 2025 are approaching 30 million tonnes, a 10 percent increase year-on-year.

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“What’s unusual about this season is that the harvest is abundant in all the major producing countries,” said Boutin, who added that Germany, the leading European producer, is having its “best harvest in 25 years”.

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But with demand weakening across the continent, that increase in supply has been cause for concern rather than celebration.

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Demand has dropped, the NEPG says, due to several factors: Weaker demand for frozen french fries after U.S. tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump; “a strong euro against the dollar” hurting European exports overall; and increased production from foreign competitors including China, India, Egypt and Turkey.

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The growers’ network claims that in the past two years, China and India, the world’s two leading producers, have “increased their frozen French fry exports to neighbouring countries tenfold,” while EU exports declined.

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For Broutin, however, the crisis is only temporary, as “global demand continues to rise,” which he believes will eventually catch up to increasing potato volumes.

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This photograph shows potatoes after harvesting at an agricultural cooperative in Geer, eastern Belgium on September 26, 2025. Photo by Nicolas TUCAT/AFP via Getty Images

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Farmers urged to reconsider

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While that suggests the European potato sector is not under threat in the long-term, farmers are still feeling the immediate consequences.

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At the end of last year, the NEPG network bluntly asked European farmers if they were ready to “produce while losing money”.