New potato crisis (From Western Telegraph)

New potato crisis

Pembrokeshires new potato industry is in crisis as prices tumble to £60 a tonne in an over-supplied market.

Weeks of rain and cold winds delayed this seasons harvest and Pembrokeshire lost its usual advantage in the early market. Counties across Britain have now caught up and supply is exceeding demand. Just over 30 per cent of the Pembrokeshire crop has been harvested at a point when the county would normally have more than half out of the ground. Growers supplying the Pembrokeshire producers co-operative, Puffin Produce, are currently getting between £60 and £100 for new potatoes compared to £600 at the start of the season.

At £100 a tonne they will only just be breaking even, said managing director Peter Cox.

The season, he explained, had been marred by rain and had cost producers dearly. We lost our niche market because of the weather and now all the other counties have caught up, said Mr Cox. The early market is always a bit of a gamble although the main crop has also become so. Part of last seasons main crop which had been kept in cold storage at a cost of around £70 a tonne is being dumped because there is no market for them.

Eighty three per cent of the Welsh early potato crop is grown in Pembrokeshire. Latest figures show that there are 103 growers producing 982 hectares of earlies. Across the county total potato production on 202 holdings covers 1,313 hectares.

Walter Simon, a farmer member of the British Potato Council, said sales suggest that potato consumption is falling. The only sector that is buoyant is processed potatoes, used in the ready meals market. Potato sales are falling year on year, said Mr Simon, of West Orielton Farm, Hundleton. People are spending less time preparing food and are also looking for something more exotic. The price differential between the old and the new crop had not helped either, he suggested. There are a lot of good quality, old crop potatoes around and prices are very cheap, he said. If old potatoes are retailing at 50p for 2.5kg compared to new potatoes at £1.50 the temptation is to go for the cheapest.

Growers are now pinning their hopes on the set-skin season when harvesting begins in the next two weeks.We are hoping that our fortunes will be improved with that part of the crop to balance out this very early set-back, said Peter Cox. Hopefully producers will be able to make a profit.