“Potatowhich is the icon of Belgian agriculture and one of the basic ingredients of our food, has become in recent decades the symbol of the endless industrialization of our agriculture and the unbalanced relationship that results from it between the agricultural world and agro-industry”explains Albane Aubry, agricultural campaign manager at Greenpeace Belgium.In our country, a handful of large agri-food companies set the market rules, to the detriment of farmers, consumers and the environment. They make colossal profits, while pushing farmers deeper and deeper into poverty.”
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The turnover of the 7 largest companies active in potatoes in Belgium (‘Big 7’) jumped by 44% between 2021 and 2022, to reach a total of 3.4 billion euros, details Greenpeace in his report. The Big 7’s operating profit increased almost 15-fold (+1,444%) between 2021 and 2022, going from 25 million euros in 2021 to 387 million euros in 2022. In 2022, the volume of apples of processed land increased by 18% compared to the record year 2019. At the same time, the net added value of the Big 7 increased by 132% and its operating profits by 1,380%. Turnover and profits have therefore increased much more than processed volumes and raw material prices, implying the use of inflation as a lever to disproportionately improve profit margins.
At the same time, farmers have not seen their conditions improve. In Belgium, farmers who sell their potatoes do so via two channels: fixed contracts (between 70 and 75% of sales) and the free market. While under fixed contracts farmers can rely on predefined agreements before production, they bear all the risks in the event of poor agricultural yields, for example due to bad weather conditions, as is the case Right now. The free market is based on a purchase price per kg set each week by potato manufacturers and wholesalers, through Belgapom, fluctuating according to supply and demand.
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“In both cases, farmers find themselves trapped in a system over which they have very little influence, which limits their autonomy and financial stability,” continues Albane Aubry. “This leads them to a permanent search for efficiency and expansion, and to resort to the intensive use of pesticides, which paradoxically degrades the natural resources essential to the viability of their activity.”
Greenpeace demands that the power of farmers in trade negotiations be strengthened, and that arbitration by our authorities allows potato prices to be fixed so that they reflect the true production costs of the agricultural world, while limiting the abusive margins of agro-industry and mass distribution.
The package of fries could be more expensive
