POTATO VALUES fell again this week (w/c Oct 11) as harvesting proved difficult and growers unwilling to store stocks oversupplied the market.

The British Potato Council weekly average price quotation slipped nearly £6/t to £73/t.

Prices have fallen almost week-on-week since mid July, when they peaked at nearly £180/t. The average GB cost of production for maincrop potatoes is £52/t.

Dr Denis Alder, head of market information and statistics at the BPC, said: “These are free market prices and the decline is supply driven. But we expect to see prices bottom out at about this time.”

Dr Alder added that in a few weeks the size of the UK main crop would be fully known, but increased yields were unlikely. The crop was thought to be similar to last year, at around 6.2m tonnes.