SEED potato production has declined for the third consecutive year according to a buyer and seller of seed potatoes in the Netherlands.
Wouter Mutsaers, who buys and sells seed potatoes at Q-potato Holland, said in a recent interview with Fresh Plaza that the production is now less than 40,000 hectares in the Netherlands, while acreage is also shrinking in Germany and France, presenting many challenges for ware production.
He said there is also increasing pressure from disease, while poor tuber setting, large seed potatoes, and difficult harvesting as a result of heavy rain, have reduced starting material for next year.
"It's been a generally dismal seed potato harvest,” he said.
He foresees a move toward using virus-resistant varieties but said, as yet, the Dutch variety package doesn't yet contain many kinds of low-virus-vulnerable potatoes.
