DCA Market Intelligence publishes continuously a list of transaction prices for potatoes suitable to make french fries. This results in the benchmark price, called the DCA-PAT-Index, after calculation. The specifications of this benchmark price are described below.
French fries-grade potatoes 40 mm upwards. Spunta and Whited skinned potatoes are excluded.
The price that a seller and/or buyer have agreed for immediate delivery. Prices are excluding VAT.
Delivery within one month
Ex. land or dry out of the barn.
Price in euros per 100 kilograms
The price input is entered in the PAT (Platform Aardappel Transacties - platform for potato transactions) by members of de Vereniging voor de Aardappelverwerkende Industrie (VAVI - association for the potato processing industry) and other potato traders after consultation with the Branch Organisation Agriculture (BO Akkerbouw). Participants are obliged to enter all transactions higher than 50 tonnes.
The Price Reporting System of DCA Market Intelligence recalculates for each newly entered transaction the value of the benchmark. All prices of the previous seven days are weighed by volume and an average price is calculated: the benchmark (DCA -PAT-Index). Prices from another sorting than 40 will be calculated according to the table below.
| Sorting | Volume adjustment | Price Adaption |
| 0/+ | - 20% | + €1,00 |
| 28/+ | - 10% | + €0,60 |
| 35/+ | - 5% | + €0,50 |
| 38/+ | - 2% | + €0,40 |
| 40/+ | =100% | = €0,00 |
| 40/65 | + 40% | - €0,50 |
| 40/70 | + 50% | - €0,55 |
| 45/+ | + 5% | - €0,40 |
| 50/+ | + 30% | - €0,80 |
On the basis of the seed potato area of the previous year, a weight is assigned to the different races. For harvest year 2021 the following applies:
| Group of varieties | Varieties | Weighting |
| Agria | Agria, Markies and Victoria | 25,09% |
| Innovator | Innovator, Lady Anna, Ivory Russet, Russet Burbank and Zorba | 27,00% |
| Fontane | Fontane, Amora, Challenger, Miranda, Ramos, Royal and Bintje | 47,91% |
The Markies variety occurs in two groups. Transactions in this variety are therefore equally divided between the Agria and Innovator variety groups, where they therefore count for 50% of the total volume each. Other varieties are assigned to the Fontane group. Assignment of future new varieties to a group will be decided upon later.
Transactions in which the potatoes are not delivered immediately are converted as follows. Innovator group Innovator, Ivory Russet, Lady Anna, Markies, Russet Burbank and Zorba 27,00% Fontane group Fontane, Amora, Challenger, Miranda, Ramos, Royal and Bintje 47,91% Version August 2021.
If delivery is made later than immediately (> within 1 month), then €0.15 will be deducted for each week up to week 17 in a calendar year. After week 17, €0.25 per week will be deducted. If only the name of the month has been agreed as the delivery period in a transaction, then delivery on the 15th day of that delivery month will be assumed in determining whether it concerns direct delivery.
When this procedure cannot be applied for any reason, the management of DCA Market Intelligence decides how the final benchmark of that week should be determined or it decides not to calculate a benchmark price for that week and publishes this with an explanation.
Version: February 2024