Potatoes: Trading
The Maine potato futures that built, then shook, NYMEX
What this tab covers How and where it is bought and sold: who buys and sells, exchanges and benchmarks, contract types, the big trading houses and how prices are discovered.Potatoes have a famous futures history. Maine potato futures were the mainstay of the New York Mercantile Exchange from 1941 (Yergin, pdf p. 1248). A delivery default in May 1976, then the largest in commodity futures, nearly ruined the exchange and pushed it toward heating oil and crude (Blas & Farchy, pdf p. 102; Morgan, pdf p. 454). Today EEX in Europe lists processing-potato futures, but most volume trades under processor contracts. These fix price and volume before planting, with uncontracted potatoes sold at spot.
Where it is bought (buyers)
- Fry and chip processors buy under pre-season contracts in Belgium, the Netherlands, the US, Canada and Gujarat
- Wholesale traders in Indian mandis such as Agra and Azadpur buy from farmers and cold-store holders
- Importers in Belgium, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands buy fresh potatoes from neighbouring countries
Where it is sold (sellers)
- Dutch, French and German growers and traders export fresh and seed potatoes
- Egypt (6.4% of world export value) and Canada (7.6%) export fresh potatoes (UN Comtrade 2023)
- Indian farmers and cold-store owners sell into domestic mandis
Exchanges and benchmarks
| Venue | Contract | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| EEX | Processing potato futures, cash-settled, euro per 100 kg | European reference; thin trading |
| India | none active | no Indian potato futures currently trade; mandi auctions set prices |
Contract types
- Pre-season fixed-price contracts between processors and growers
- Buy-back contracts with seed supply (India)
- Free-market spot sales from store
Top trading houses
- Specialist potato traders in the Netherlands and France; in India, commission agents and cold-store operators
How prices are discovered
- Mandi auctions reported on Agmarknet
- EEX futures and Dutch and Belgian free-market quotations
- Processor contract prices set before planting