Last year, despite the difficult growing conditions as a result of the extreme heat and drought during both the 2018-2019 and the 2019-2020 seasons, the Belgian potato-processing industry once again improved the record for processed potatoes.
Almost 5.3 million tonnes of potatoes processed into fries, mashed potato products, crisps, flakes and granules or precooked potatoes meant an increase of 3.8% compared to the figures for 2018.
This increase is mainly the result of a rise in the production of frozen fries.
In 2019, 2,231,000 tonnes of frozen fries were produced (an increase of 7.5 % compared to 2018). The production of fresh fries (230,314 tonnes) and other potato products (684,810 tonnes) fell slightly by 0.5 and 1.6 % respectively.
Rise in number of employees and high degree of investment for fourth successive year
In 2019, the number of employees in the sector rose from 4,762 to 4,991. Even if the investments last year did not round the cape of
