Of the many countries known for their delicious fries, Belgium is especially highly regarded by many, especially when accompanies with mayonnaise.
However, Belgian farmers have been put in a tough situation as unsold potatoes continue to pile up in their storages.
NPR has reported that some 750,000 tonnes of potatoes are stocked up as unwanted surplus in storage around Belgium. As restaurants were forced to shut down or only operate at a limited capacity, farmers have lost their biggest customers.
In this unprocessed state, most of the potatoes will have to be discarded after June. As the surplus increases with diminished demand, prices of potatoes have collapsed in Belgium and around the world.
Romain Cools, the head of Belgapom, has now begun a campaign that urged Belgians to double their consumption of fries to help the farmers. Belgapom is the nation’s largest potato processors.
Cools has explained that statistics show Belgians eat fries once every week on average. His reasoning is that if all Belgians consume fries twice a week while balancing the diet by reducing oil intake in other meals, the situation would dramatically improve for the farmers.
Moreover, Cools argued that this would resolve the bottleneck issue that potato processors are facing. As more fries are sold, processors would naturally buy more potatoes from the farmers. This would help both the farmers and the rest of the potato industry in Belgium.
After he first expressed this rather idiosyncratic solution last month, it has gained traction around the world. Belgium is one of the largest exporters of processed potatoes. In Belgium alone, potato processing is a $2 billion sector.
The Belgian government has also stepped into help the distribution of potatoes. Municipal governments have signed a project with one of the leading potato producers to donate 25 tonnes of potato every week to food banks.
As aforementioned, raw potato can only be stored for a short time, whereas processed potato has a much longer shelf life. Cool said that he will work with other food processors to accelerate the consumption of fries all around the nation.
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Replaced!