Potato Storage and Transport in Europe

Across Europe, the handling and storage of potatoes rely heavily on standardized, durable, and ventilated containers—commonly wooden or plastic potato boxes, and metal mesh containers known as gitterboxen. These systems are widely adopted because they solve several key logistical problems in the potato supply chain: maintaining product quality, ensuring efficient handling during transport, and allowing easy integration with modern mechanized systems. The prevalence of these storage and transport units differs somewhat between regions, but the general trend shows a clear movement toward harmonized, reusable containers across European borders.

Widespread use across the Continent

The majority of Western and Northern European countries—especially the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Denmark, and the UK—have adopted potato crates and pallet cages as a standard. These containers enable potatoes to be harvested, ventilated, dried, stored, and transported with minimal manual labor and product damage. Because of the high level of mechanization in European agriculture, especially in the potato industry, equipment such as forklifts, automated stacking systems, and controlled storage facilities are designed around the dimensions of these standardized containers. For this reason, the boxes and gitterboxes themselves have become part of a shared logistical language understood by growers, processors, and distributors throughout Europe.

In Eastern and Southern Europe, the same containers are increasingly used, though the transition is slower in regions where bulk handling or traditional sacks remain common. Yet even there, the influence of cross-border trade, EU hygiene standards, and export requirements gradually pushes the industry toward the same standardized box systems.

Who should own them — grower and/or transporter?

The decision of who should invest in these containers depends on where in the supply chain control and responsibility are concentrated. For many potato growers, owning the boxes makes practical sense because the containers are used from harvest until delivery to the processor or wholesaler. The boxes allow on-farm drying and storage under controlled conditions, maintaining optimal temperature and humidity while preventing bruising and rot. Having their own crates also allows farmers to handle their harvest more flexibly and to deliver graded and traceable batches to their buyers.

Transport companies, however, often own gitterboxes or standardized pallets when they specialize in cross-border distribution or in delivering potatoes to large industrial clients. These metal or reinforced plastic containers withstand multiple loading cycles, are compatible with European pallet dimensions, and can be easily sanitized, which is crucial for food safety compliance. In such cases, the transporter provides the logistical infrastructure while the grower focuses on production and storage quality.

Economic and logistical rationale

Because the containers are reusable and stackable, they reduce the cost of transport per unit volume and make both domestic and export logistics more efficient. EU-wide compatibility means that a container filled in the Netherlands can be directly offloaded at a French processing plant or a German wholesale center without repacking or specialized handling equipment. This interoperability saves time and labor, lowers the risk of contamination, and prevents product loss. Moreover, the standardization facilitates rental systems—companies now lease boxes and gitterboxes to growers and traders who need temporary capacity during harvest season.

A shared infrastructure for efficiency

In essence, potato crates and gitterboxes are not just tools for storage or transport; they represent a unified European system for handling agricultural produce efficiently. For the grower, owning such containers can increase autonomy, ensure better storage conditions, and improve product traceability. For the transporter, they represent logistical compatibility, durability, and reliability in international trade. Because the potato supply chain in Europe depends so heavily on cooperation between farms, logistics providers, and processors, the widespread use of these standardized containers is both a cause and a consequence of that integration. In today’s European market, it is almost impossible to remain competitive without participating in this shared container system—whether as a grower investing in them directly or as a transporter managing their movement across the continent.