Belgians are being called upon to eat fries at least twice a week as more than 750,000 tons of potatoes are at risk of being thrown away.
Romain Cools, secretary general of Belgian potato industry body Belgapom, told CNBC potato producers faced a long-term crisis.
The issue was largely down to a fall in demand in the frozen potato sector, which accounts for around 75% of Belgium's potato processing, he said. As inventories built up, freezer capacity was being squeezed. In order to mitigate the problem, Belgapom was appealing to Belgians to up their weekly intake of fries.
Belgium's government implemented a nationwide state of lockdown on March 18 in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus. To date, the country has had 46,687 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 7,207 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Potatoes that could not be processed were being sent to food banks and exported to Central Europe and Africa, where there were shortages. Any produce left over after that was being made into animal feed or processed into biofuel. But those initiatives often came at a cost to the sector, Cools noted.
Prior to the coronavirus crisis, however, Belgium was having a "wonderful" potato season, according to Cools.
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