News Potatoes
McDonald's is concerned about the availability of potatoes
McDonald's is concerned about the availability of sufficient potatoes suitable for its French fries, the McFries. The fast-food chain sees the pressure on the potato chain increasing worldwide due to extreme weather conditions. 'A good potato grower and high-quality seed potatoes are no longer a guarantee for a long spud.'
This was stated by Jerôme de la Chambre, sustainability manager at McDonald's, on Wednesday (August 21) at the Potato Demo Day in Westmaas (The Netherlands). 'The high-quality potatoes have brought us a lot at McDonald's,' said De la Chambre. 'Many of our customers specifically drive for a portion of McFries from one of our restaurants.' The fast-food chain has also summarized this feeling under the motto 'Good Times.' De la Chambre emphasizes that McDonald's no longer sees the availability of a sufficient quantity of high-quality raw material as a given. Or, as he puts it, 'not every spud makes it to fries.'
Making more varieties suitable
Especially extreme weather conditions, such as this year in the Netherlands with the prolonged very wet spring, mean that not all potatoes will meet McDonald's requirements. 'We also realize that we do not apply the easiest conditions,' said De la Chambre. The potatoes must be easy to process in the production process, be fried in a restaurant in a maximum of 2 minutes, have a good color, and so on. 'We also need to adapt to the new reality,' De la Chambre stated.
McDonald's has predominantly used the Innovator variety for the McFries so far, but the chain is looking at more varieties to process into French fries together with the sector. 'We are working on making the Etana variety suitable for processing into McFries in Belgium, Chenoa in Germany, and Donata in the Netherlands.' Internally, they have also considered serving other potato products alongside the French fries that do not require long potatoes. 'But that doesn't match the experience of our McFries.' According to De la Chambre, the fast-food chain is also looking ahead and working with the chain on plans to make potato cultivation more resilient to weather risks. 'We need a robust food system because without potatoes, there are no Good Times.'
Costs for benefits
McDonald's is collaborating with Farm Frites and Nedato in a project to increase the water retention capacity of fields, among other things by preventing compaction. Thirty growers are participating in this project. 'It takes a while before we reap the benefits, costs precede benefits. But we hope that we can manage the weather risks for growers and we are willing to invest in that. That's why McDonald's is also reaching out to other parties in the chain.' De La Chambre hinted that McDonald's is considering paying premiums to growers, for example, if they meet measures from the Biodiversity Monitor Arable Farming (BMA) in The Netherlands.'
