As the Reuters agency, in Germany, demand for potatoes and potato products plummeted during the coronavirus crisis, significant volumes of production are used as animal feed or for the production of biogas.
According to the German Association for the Horticulture and Potato Processing Industry (BOGK), there has been a “catastrophic decline in sales" of frozen, chilled and dried potato products.
Recall that Germany is the largest producer of potatoes in the European Union and one of the main consumers of this product.
“Several hundred thousand tons of potatoes intended for processing were not used,” said Horst-Peter Karos, BOGK Executive Director. “Valuable foodstuffs go to animal feed, to biogas production or are disposed of in other ways, which leads to losses in the industry, measured in millions of euros.”
Karos emphasized that Germany’s potato industry needs government assistance and expressed the hope that such assistance would be provided as part of the economic recovery program.