From zoos to soup kitchens, people are hauling away tonnes of surplus spuds after the biggest crop in 25 years
Germans love their potatoes. They eat on average 63kg a person every year, according to official statistics.
But the exceptional glut of potatoes produced by farmers during the last harvest has overwhelmed even the hardiest of fans.
Named the Kartoffel-Flut (potato flood), after the highest yield in 25 years, the bumper crop has inspired one farmer to organise a potato dump on Berlin, with appeals going out around the German capital for people to come to various hotspots and pick them up for free.
Soup kitchens, homeless shelters, kindergartens, schools, churches and non-profit organisations are among those to have taken their fill. Even Berlin zoo has participated in the “rescue mission”, taking tonnes of potatoes that would otherwise have gone to landfill, or to produce biogas, to feed its animals. Two lorry loads have been sent to Ukraine.
