© Kait Bolongaro/POLITICOFarmer Johan Geleyns is one of the many potato farmers feeling the heat this summer | Kait Bolongaro/POLITICO
Food vendors in Belgium are praying for rain as the hot weather threatens the supply of the country's national dish, frites.
The Europe-wide heatwave has shrunk Belgium's early crop of potatoes by about one-third compared with an average year. Without significant rainfall over the next few weeks,
the key September and October harvests could be smaller still.The heat impacts not only the yield, but the size of the potatoes and the roughness of their skins. If they are too tough, they cannot be handled by the peeling machines used by chip manufacturers.The price of the bintje potato, the traditional variety used in creating the frite, or frieten, as people say in the Flemish-speaking north of the country where the crisis has most been felt, has already shot up. And it is likely to rise further, turning the cheap Belgian snack into a rather expensive one.
Bernard Lefèvre, the president of Unafri-Navefri, the stallowners' association, told Politico: "It's a subject that is at the heart of our job.
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