Potato growers going bust as prices plummet

17 September 1999

Potato growers going bust as prices plummet

By Charles Abel

POTATO growers are going bankrupt as higher plantings, tighter specifications, slow liftings, sliding quality and the strong £ send prices plunging. Average price this week was £75/t compared with £134 last year.

With prices for all farm commodities on the floor, growers have nothing to buffer such low prices, says NFU potato committee chairman Richard Watson-Jones. "Growers are going bust and not just small producers."

Processing growers appear hardest hit. "The strong pound is doing untold damage. Even half a penny a kilogramme can mean lost business for processors. There is a real incentive for them to source processed product from abroad."

Co-operation must improve to halt the downturn, Mr Watson-Jones argues. "Now that the consumer is king the whole industry must work together to meet its demands. I hope people listen before the casualties are so severe that there is no UK production base left to deliver what the market wants."

Growers must hear consumer requirements more clearly to avoid the huge price cuts for produce failing to meet increasingly stringent quality criteria, he says. "Retailers know what the consumer trends are and we need to know too, so we can plan. It is a two and a half year cycle to bring a potato to the shop shelf. It is no good having a variety dropped just before harvest, as happened with Pentland Javelin last year."

In the processing sector more effort is needed to use the whole crop. "Wastage can be reduced, by looking at alternative uses within a processor, rather than 100% rejection. We have just had a major breakthrough on this with one key processor."

There are no quick fixes, he acknowledges. But the British Potato Council, which is up for review next spring, can play a vital co-ordination role. "It will be the levy payers choice – should they vote for co-ordination, or do nothing and ignore the challenges of the global market?"

But Notts producer John Clark of Farnsfield, near Mansfield questions progress to date. "I thought co-operation and co-ordination was what we voted for when the BPC was set up. Why cant we work together more rapidly than we are now?" he asks.

VEG CHECK

A check that rules governing the importation of fruit and veg do ensure they match UK standards will be included in MAFFs over-haul of farm sector regulations, agriculture minister Nick Brown told farmers weekly last week. "We will carefully examine the question of fair play to ensure appropriate standards of production are being applied to equal and equivalent products," he said during a visit to celebrate 50 years of horticultural research at HRI Wellesbourne (p58). "If there is distortion we will want to know what justification there is for it."

Import check

A check that rules governing the importation of fruit and veg do ensure imports meet UK standards will be included in MAFFs over-haul of farm sector regulations, agriculture minister Nick Brown told farmers weekly last week. "We will carefully examine the question of fair play to ensure appropriate standards of production are being applied to equal and equivalent products," he said during a visit to celebrate 50 years of horticultural research at HRI Wellesbourne (p58). "If there is distortion we will want to know what justification there is for it."