The UK Potato Market - A Farmer's View
October 2011
Most of the potato crops are now harvested and in store so we are in a better position to evaluate the likely market prices over the coming year. It has been one of the strangest growing seasons that I have experienced. You may remember that we were seriously worried that there would be a severe shortage due to the drought at the beginning of the summer but now the problem most growers have is where to store the surplus!
After the changeable summer weather which seemed to suit most potato crops and surprisingly enabled them to catch up from the dry start, the only remaining worry was that the harvest period would be wet and difficult. That has not been the case and the lifting operation has been relatively easy and continuous so that the only reason it is not complete in some cases is that, as I said above, the growers are running out of storage space. Our local potato box manufacturer has taken on extra staff to try to cope with the demand!
As we suspected part-way through the season, the weather pattern has caused the potato plants to produce larger tubers which means there are ample supplies of the larger baking potatoes and fewer than usual of the smaller sizes. As you would expect the market price has fallen and may fall further. However, there is a big .but.; it is a case of .buyer beware. because the bumper crop seems to have attracted more pests and diseases than usual. There are lots of good potato stocks around but also lots of very poor stocks.
With regard to intake here at Farmhouse, our rejections are mainly due to bruising. It is worse this year because of the dry harvesting period. The dry soil makes it easy for the machines to run but, unless the machine operator is very careful, it can mean more bruising because there is less soil going up the webs which usually, when wetter, carries further up the lifters and tends to protect the tubers. Also, as the days have become cooler, the bruising becomes worse; colder potatoes bruise more readily. One of the major problems is that the bruising often does not show up for several days so a grower may carry on lifting not knowing until it is too late that there is a problem.
Another problem this year is mis-shapen tubers. Some varieties have a tendency to grow around clods of soil or stones and so become mis-shaped. This really only occurs if the land has not been correctly prepared before planting. Early this year it was difficult for those growers on heavy clay land because the dry period meant that the clay clods dried hard before the farmers had a chance to break them down with their cultivations.
It seems that, at the beginning of this year.s potato harvesting season, a few growers may have misjudged the maturity of their crops because some varieties did take a long time to form a .set skin.. It is tempting to rush into harvesting too soon because the weather is good, but it can be disastrous. The skin needs to be fully formed to protect the tuber from disease. We have heard reports of some stores .breaking down. - basically rotting and turning to a smelly goo! This can be caused by immature skin allowing the entry of bacteria into the tuber giving rise to soft rots. This rot then spreads from one potato to another until the whole store is affected. Fortunately it doesn.t happen very often.
Despite these problems it is now clear that there will be plentiful supplies throughout the season and prices will remain stable. The winter months can cause short-term problems if there are severe frosts which restrict growers from opening stores but, because of the high yields, prices are not likely to be affected. Lower prices are good to encourage sales but, as everyone knows, if they go too low they can spoil the market for the future and everyone throughout the food chain needs to make a margin. I hope growers are not squeezed on price this year to the extent that they are put off growing next year, otherwise we will have the opposite happening and a shortage is not good for anyone either.
Rob Bannister
Robert Bannister ©2011
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Traditionally Baked Potatoes
