Belgium's industrial potato sector is in crisis after a record harvest of five million tonnes in 2024–25 left frozen-chip manufacturers with full warehouses and no appetite for additional supply, pushing the spot-market price of so-called "conservation" potatoes — varieties grown specifically for industrial processing — to zero euros. Around 75% of the crop is sold to processors under pre-arranged contracts at higher fixed prices, but the surplus left on the open market has found no buyers, forcing some farmers to give their stock away for free. Wallonian farmer Bruno Warnant (from the French-speaking region of southern Belgium) distributed 120 tonnes to the public rather than discard them, estimating personal losses of around €24,000, and says he plans to cut his potato acreage by a quarter next season in favour of maize.