Belgians Ordered to Eat More Frites
The national delicacy of Belgium is a box of frites – twice-fried potatoes that look and taste pretty much like regular French fries. There are lockdown measures in force all across the country, and most Belgians are used to eating great quantities of frites socially outdoors. As a result, the frite market is oversupplied and under strain. Forget oil!
Romain Cools is Secretary General of the country’s potato industry and the best-named person in Europe. He’s telling investors that unless over 750,000 tons of frites are cooked up and devoured at home, the national dish will have to be burned.
“We’re working with supermarkets to launch a campaign. We’re asking Belgians to do something for the sector by eating frites twice a week in this crisis. We’re trying to reduce food waste; every lost potato is a loss.” It’s diabetes versus coronavirus, people!
Belgium is quite far ahead in terms of plans to unlock, second only to the Czech Republic in Europe. It will allow fabric shops to reopen on May 4th to make face masks for the general public, before transport services return and all other shops reopen on May 11th. However, close-quarter cafes and bars won’t be allowed back until a month from now.
Such are the social and economic consequences, it’s clear some governments are not wasting any time in reopening despite immunological warnings. It’s debatable whether so many world leaders would have ordered lockdowns in the first place if less first-moving nations were so aggressive, but hey, it’s all water under the bridge now.
The eyes of the world fall on Belgium’s case numbers, and its frite consumption!
