Potato prices start new year with weekly average of £154.69/t
© Tim Scrivener Potato markets have started the new year on an upward trend, with the AHDB Potato weekly average price at £154.69/t in the week to 8 January.
That was £8.16/t up on the previous average, reported in the week to 18 December.
The free-buy average was also up, from £143.66/t to £149.29/t ex-farm.
“Most packers concentrated on clearing the extra stocks bought in to cover Christmas requirements,” said the report.
“This left a subdued free-buy demand which centred on best skin finish and high baker content samples.”
See also: 5 reasons why European growers can grow potatoes for less
Wholecrop salad Charlotte was priced at £400/t, with grade one Desiree at £200-£230/t.
The mild winter continued to trouble stocks in ambient stores, with some premature sprouting forcing early movement to minimise losses. Heavy rain was also preventing growers in Cornwall from planting the 2016 crop, it added.
GB growers’ potato stocks at the end of November 2015 were about 300,000t lower than November 2014, at 3.2m tonnes, according to the latest AHDB survey.
“With the 2015 crop estimated down 300,000t, it comes as no surprise that stocks are also down.”
The percentage of potatoes in store, compared with the overall crop size, was exactly the same as last year, at 59%.