Potato News

Why did things go quiet on the potato front, Matthew? 

Last year I was candid about our potato yields and quality as we worked our way through the harvest.  I didn't do that this year.  We were late starting but things went quite well and we finished harvesting a couple of weeks ago.

Dad and I made a decision, based on gut reaction, to sell all of the potatoes as quickly as we could this year.  We normally store a percentage of the best quality and sell them in the next tax year. 

Our yields were much higher than last year - although I decided that it wasn't in our commercial interests to write that in a public place while I was trying to sell them.  We know that this is down to weather conditions rather than exceptional agronomic skill on our part and we assume this is the case for other growers too. 

There are plenty of variables in the potato market and, in the light of the country's economic woes, we are positioning our business in cautious mode.  In fresh produce, and particualrly cut flowers, we are very exposed to retail trends - we need to limit risks where we can.  We also want a bit of cash by us to capitalise on the "opportunities" that the next twelve months will throw up (Range Rover Sport for eight grand, anyone?)  

It is unclear how many potatoes remain unharvested or what the yields are like in the West where they have had even more rain than we have.  We don't know if consumption will be affected positively or negatively by the "recession."  We don't know how the potatoes will store sucessfully after a wet growing season with little sunshine.  Presumably more growers will be keen to sell early and recover cash after the disastrous wheat harvest.  When we are feeling "bearish", it normally means that other growers are too.

So we have sold the whole crop already, the money will hopefully all be with us in seven or eight weeks.  They have ended up split, almost in equal proportions, between M&S, Sainsbury, Asda and Co -op.  It is the first time that we have ever sold the entire crop to supermarket packers.  The prices were nothing to get excited about.  The contracts that we had in place for a percentage of the crop paid a few thousand quid premium over the free market price (last year the same contract cost us £25000 from our bottom line).  We made a profit which, considering that the costs were dramatically higher than our expectations, is something to be thankful for.

In our opinion, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.  Growers with the courage to store potatoes at their own risk deserve a much higher return than we have obtained.  In most seasons they will get it, perhaps they will this year.  I've always been a Nervous Nerys, I'm a happier man than I was a month ago.