06 March 2024
We’re currently experiencing a major issue with potatoes, that everyone should be aware of!
The industry is seeing a large shortage of the nation’s favourite staple crop as we enter into Spring. This is a culmination of events that some could argue originated as far back as May 2022.
As we know, potatoes are a product that we pick from store for the vast majority of the year, which means that quite often any issues that we are experiencing now, are knocked on until the next 6 months to a year.
Last year, our farmers faced an extreme weather fluctuation which caused pressure bruising by dehydration on produce in the ground. Alongside seeing a huge amount of stored products being downgraded from their original quality, due to the weather in May of 2022! You start to see the knock-on effect here.
This year, we’re seeing the devastation of product in the ground from the consistently poor weather and flooding.
Where farmers have been trying to extract the potatoes from the ground, their tractors have instead been sliding around the field and getting stuck in the oversaturated soil, rendering them unable to complete the extraction. This ranges from products having to be left to rot in the ground, to weeks delay in extraction for the lucky ones.
Whilst there has been some successful lifting in the South West, the East has taken the majority of the hit.
Unfortunately, our UK farmers are not the only ones who are experiencing major crop issues with potatoes…
Ukraine has seen a shortage of quality potatoes in storage as they are coming up to the season change, which has caused more imports from Poland and other EU countries to meet demands.
To compound the issue even further there’s also been a significant drop in potato crops having been planted due to some farmers no longer wanting to face the tight margins they are being asked for, alongside the increase in operational costs.
“According to market information service World Potato Markets, the total GB potato area in 2023 is forecast at just 101,723ha – down from 117,466ha in 2020, when the AHDB ceased producing annual GB potato figures.”
To put that into perspective, your typical rugby pitch is 1.0008 ha, which means that it is forecasted in 2023, the UK is down 15,730 rugby pitches in potato crop from 2020…
We foresee this being an issue for the upcoming months as we move into new season potatoes.
Reach out to our team today for any questions you may have.
Email: customerservices@unitedfresh.co.uk
Office: 01789 339106
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