Harvesting of Pembrokeshire's maincrop potato acreage is on target and reports suggest the quality is generally good.

Up to 10,000 tonnes of maincrop potatoes are being grown in Pembrokeshire for the Asda supermarket chain through Haverfordwest-based growers' co-operative, Puffin Produce.

Its commercial director, Barry Gaskell, said there was only a small incidence of potato scab in the crop. "This is the result of the dry spell we had in June but it isn't too much of a problem," he said.

"The potatoes that are coming out of the ground are generally very good." Around 6,000 tonnes will be stored at Puffin's cold storage facility at Withybush and the rest in on-farm stores.

"We will use the tonnage from the farm stores up until Christmas and dip into our own stores from January onwards," said Mr Gaskell.

Several Puffin growers, he said, had committed to Asda's Cost Plus initiative, which guarantees the farmer a fixed return per acre, depending on yields.

This, he said, took the variances out of a sometimes volatile marketplace. "It takes the highs and lows out of the job," said Mr Gaskell.

"Not all of our growers have signed up because it is a new initiative for them and understandably there can be a certain degree of scepticism about something new.

"However, some have said they will commit half their acreage to it this year to see how it works out and take the price as it comes for the remainder of their crop. It has been very successful in eastern counties of England so there might be more of an uptake next year.''