Whether you call them French fries, chips or frites, they are more than a staple of European food culture. Across the continent, they remain the most popular potato-based dish, with up to 42 percent of consumers in countries such as France and the Netherlands naming them as their favorite according to McCain’s SPUD Report.
Recent findings from this report, based on more than 12,000 consumers across 11 countries, highlight how deeply embedded potatoes (and fries) are in daily life across Europe. Seventy-one percent of French respondents even said that fries are a must-have on a restaurant menu when eating out. But behind every fry lies a much bigger story about how Europe produces its food and how it can remain competitive in the years ahead.
At McCain, we believe food plays an important role in people’s lives, with the power to bring individuals, families and communities together. Collaboration has always been our foundation. Our business began in collaboration with farmers and working together remains the only way to stay true to our past while building our future.
Behind every fry lies a much bigger story about how Europe produces its food and how it can remain competitive in the years ahead.
In Europe, we work directly with more than 1,500 partner farmers through direct contracts. This close relationship is what differentiates us. It allows us to get insights directly from potato growers who are on the front line experiencing the impact of climate change on their crops. As a matter of fact, potato yields across Europe have decreased by around 10 percent over the last 10 years.1 We must urgently change course and protect our crops from the ground up, starting with the soil. Healthy soil is critical to securing the future of food and long-term competitiveness of the potato sector as well as the wider agri-food industry.
That is why, together with our farmers, we are committed to implementing regenerative agriculture practices across 100 percent of the potato acreage used to grow McCain potatoes by 2030. This is not a top-down target. It is a joint ambition that we are deploying with individual growers, farm by farm.
This is the central challenge that agriculture and food now face.
Climate volatility, soil degradation, rising input costs and growing pressure on global trade flows are reshaping agriculture across the continent. At the same time, Europe must maintain its position as a leading agri-food producer and exporter in an increasingly competitive and disruptive global market. A resilient and competitive food system is no longer just desirable. It is essential.
Regenerative agriculture offers a path forward. At its core, it focuses on restoring soil health and preserving water resources while maintaining productivity. What gives us confidence are the results we see. In our eight pilot farms in France where we test regenerative agriculture, practices such as multi-species cover crops have increased yield by around 3 percent, while reduced tillage has delivered around 6 percent. When practices improve both resilience and yields, farmers take notice. That is when the transition becomes credible and shows the potential to scale.
Regenerative agriculture offers a path forward. At its core, it focuses on restoring soil health and preserving water resources while maintaining productivity.
The question is no longer whether to transition. The question is how to make it work in practice, combining resilience with economic attractiveness.
At McCain, this is already happening. Across our European network, more than 70 percent of our potato acreage is onboarded in our regenerative agriculture framework, with more than 320 farmers engaged through dedicated, long-term contracts.
Our goal is clear: deploying regenerative agriculture on all our potato acreage by 2030 — farm by farm, grower by grower.
We are also investing in the tools needed to accelerate this transition. Our recently launched Farm of the Future in the United Kingdom, developed in partnership with the University of Leeds, builds on similar initiatives in Canada and South Africa. It tests regenerative practices at commercial scale and generates real-world data to support adoption.
But farm-level progress alone is not enough.
Our goal is clear: deploying regenerative agriculture on all our potato acreage by 2030 — farm by farm, grower by grower.
If regenerative agriculture is to scale, it must extend beyond individual farms and companies. It requires collaboration across the entire value chain. That’s why we are actively involved in landscape initiatives such as the COVALO project in France and Routes to Regen in the U.K. By bringing together companies that work with the same farmers, these projects take a whole-farm approach. They facilitate technical, financial and peer-to-peer support, thus accelerating the uptake of regenerative agriculture.
More broadly, the deployment of regenerative agriculture is not only an environmental agenda. It is a competitiveness agenda for Europe’s agri-food sector.
In a global market, the ability to produce efficiently, remain competitive and export successfully depends on resilient farming systems. Europe remains one of the world’s leading agri-food producers and exporters, but competition is intensifying. Strengthening soil health and reducing exposure to volatile inputs supports a more stable and productive value chain, reinforcing Europe’s position in global agri-food markets.
Regenerative agriculture is not only an environmental agenda. It is also a competitiveness agenda
The time to act is now. Europe needs an ambitious and clear path for its agri-food value chains. We see three priorities to swiftly move forward:
Regenerative agriculture is not only an environmental agenda. It is also a competitiveness agenda
Firstly, this is about recognizing food and agriculture as a strategic sector for European resilience and growth. As the EU’s largest manufacturing industry, generating over €1 trillion and supporting millions of jobs, the sector is a cornerstone of both competitiveness and strategic autonomy. To deliver on this potential, we must put innovation first through simpler rules and smarter incentives to unlock investment, accelerate research and development, and scale solutions.
Secondly, we need to accelerate the transition toward regenerative agriculture. This means strengthening support for regenerative agriculture through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), ensuring that incentives are more targeted and outcome-based, sustainability practices are measured in a consistent way, and financing mechanisms effectively scale investment. Among others, the next CAP, which will cover 2028-34, should include:
—A ring-fenced budget for environmental incentives tied to measurable results.
—Joint public-private financing to facilitate the transition for farmers.
All of these actions together have the potential to accelerate regenerative agriculture and ultimately deliver a transition at scale.
Finally, Europe must maintain an ambitious trade agenda. The agri-food sector is one of the EU’s largest exporting industries, with exports exceeding €230 billion annually. Strengthening competitiveness is essential to maintaining market access and driving growth for agri-food companies based in Europe.
Ultimately, the future of Europe’s food system depends on the strength of the models driving this transition — models that make farming both sustainable and economically viable. This must become the cornerstone of the entire value chain, from farmers to consumers.
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- This article is linked to advocacy regarding strengthening the competitiveness and sustainability of Europe’s agri-food sector
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