Warnez and The Potato Chef think they can offer something different with their niche varieties and innovative NPD
Belgian potato suppliers Warnez and The Potato Chef are setting their sights on the UK market with their speciality and prepared potato products.
The two companies exhibited at the IFE trade show in London for the first time, from 30 March to 1 April. And Britain is a market they see potential in as consumer demand rises for premium potato varieties and added-value convenience products.
Warnez business development manager William de Vliegher explained that as well as presenting the supplier’s offer to IFE visitors, he was in London to do some research on the fresh, prepared and frozen potato products available at UK supermarkets.
European potato suppliers have had a tough time of late, with expanded plantings, favourable growing conditions and weak demand – along with increased competition from Asia and US tariffs – combining to create a surplus of potatoes across Europe, including the UK.
For example, Belgian potato plantings expanded by 12.5 per cent from 2023 to 2025, reaching an estimated 107,685ha, according to Statbel figures provided by Vlam.
Despite this challenging backdrop, De Vliegher sees opportunities to find a niche in the UK market with speciality varieties such as Ratte, a popular salad potato in France, and Vitelotte, with its distinctive purple skin and flesh.
At present, the supplier’s main export markets are the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.
Warnez, a family-owned business established in the 1950s, grows, imports, packs, distributes potatoes in packs ranging from 200g to 25kg.
“We’re working with about 50 varieties so we can offer a wide range of flavour profiles and some good disease resistance,” De Vliegher told FPJ. “We think we can add value to the UK market, especially with our end-of-year varieties.”
Convenient creations
The Potato Chef, meanwhile, is a brand owned by De Aardappelhoeve, a family business that specialises in growing, washing and packing potatoes.
The business sees opportunities for some of its added-value products, particularly its sweet potato croquettes, given the vegetable’s popularity in Britian and the fact they can be air-fried.
Around 65 per cent of De Aardappelhoeve’s turnover is in fresh potatoes but the supplier is continuously investing in its branded convenience range.
The Potato Chef range launched in 2020 and now accounts for around 15 per cent of sales as time-poor consumers increasingly turn to convenience products, not just in Belgium and the UK, but also in other European markets.
“I think in fresh potatoes, it can be more difficult to export because potatoes are grown in other European countries, but with the convenience products, we can offer more added value because of the longer shelf life and because we have certain products that are not yet developed in some other markets,” says Ellen Nemegheer, sales and finance director of De Aardappelhoeve.
Products include fries, skin-on wedges, baby potatoes with various marinades, and both potato and sweet potato croquettes – the first product developed for the range.
“Almost 10 years ago we started growing sweet potatoes for the fresh market, but we had very high waste,” Nemegheer recalls. “So, we looked for a way to use our Class 2 product. It didn’t meet the standards of the supermarkets, but it’s still a good product.
“Sweet potato mash and soups already existed, so we decided to do something totally new and developed our sweet potato croquettes.
“That was the The Potato Chef’s first product, and because it’s very niche it opened retailers’ doors, first in Belgium and then in a few other countries.”
The supplier currently exports convenience products to the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Iceland.
