Fries powerhouse Belgium is in for a record potato harvest this year — but that’s hardly cause for celebration for farmers who face a slump in prices partially driven by a crunch in exports.

With almost all potatoes plucked from the ground, the European nation is set to produce about five million tonnes of the tubers, up 11 percent on 2024 and just short of half a tonne per inhabitant, according to farming group Belpotato.

The milestone comes on the back of a steady rise in potato-farmed land fuelled by the country’s world-beating frozen fries industry, which is now feeling the pinch of US tariffs and growing competition from Asia.

“We are at a tipping point,” Belpotato’s secretary Pierre Lebrun told AFP. “Global markets have been buying fewer European fries”.

Fried potatoes are a nati

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