Fears of a potato shortage after a ‘nightmare’ 12 months for growers
Growers are living in hope that the fine weather spell forecasted for this June Bank Holiday materialises as they near the end of planting their potato crops.
A shortage of Irish potatoes will soon become apparent to consumers especially as they could face higher prices as growers battle a “nightmare” for the last 12 months that has been the culmination of delayed plantings and harvests, and reduced yield.
While early potato varieties should be planted early in the spring and harvested in June/July, as a result of continued wet weather, growers encountered difficulties in doing so and instead, the planting of these early crops came at much the same time as planting of the main crops.
Irish Farmers’ Association potato chairman Sean Ryan said that farms in the midlands and parts of Leinster such as Meath are nearly finished up planting and overall have gotten on better in recent weeks due to more reasonable weather, while more southern counties such as Wexford and Cork are around 70% of the way there.
“With the forecast coming there now we’d be hoping most of them will be finished planting towards the end of next week,” Mr Ryan estimated.
Potatoes should have been planted in March and into April and “this year we’re at the first week of June and still not finished – that is going to affect yields that are going to come off those crops”.
A reduced availability of Irish potatoes will be visible from now on, as Mr Ryan explained that last year around 700 acres were lost between flooding and frost, and overall the yield was poor then too.
“The old season potatoes are not there, usually the old season would be there until the new season comes in, but they’re not so it’s a double whammy really,” he said, as the new season potatoes were not planted on time there will be a delay and more limited supply for sale in the coming months.
“There will be some new season in the middle of June but it won’t be a lot. It will be maybe six or eight weeks later than normal,” he added.
Colin Buttimer, a third-generation potato grower at Rockvale Farm in Sheepwalk, Fermoy, is situated in the “heart of Ireland’s prime potato growing land, the Blackwater valley in north county Cork”.
The farm, which also grows grain and has beef cattle, specialises in chipping potatoes, with its main varieties being Markies and Rooster, Mr Buttimer explained.
He told the that the farm has 125 acres for potatoes this year, and annually tries to grow between 120 and 150 acres, “but it just depends on land availability”.
The farm works with tillage farmers in the area and rotates with them, but many of these farmers have come under pressure for ground as a result of the nitrates derogation reduction, with dairy farmers taking in more land.
The impact of bad weather started around a year ago, Mr Buttimer recalled.
“During the summer it didn’t affect us that badly because potatoes like a bit of water during the growing season.
“We never got a dry spell at all really, all the way through the autumn and into the spring and we still haven’t gotten that dry spell.”
The farm doesn’t sow early crops, and it would normally be towards the end of March before planting would start. However, this year, they were a month late in starting, and the process has been on and off ever since, with a few days of this work taking place in between spells of bad weather.
“Trying to get a week’s work into three or four days is hard stuff,” Mr Buttimer said.
“We’ve never been planting this late before, I don’t know about other growers around here but we’ve always been finished earlier than this.
“In saying that, last year was a late year as well but we finished the bulk of it last year around May 20 – but that was a lot later than normal too.
“Sometimes this time of year we’d be trying to bag potatoes as well but we’re basically sold out now.”
The weather has made work that “doesn’t need to be that difficult, very difficult”, Mr Buttimer added.
“When nature works with you and things are ok, there’s no better job in the world,” he said.
“But when nature goes against you, it really can make things difficult.”
Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue announced recently that to “give confidence to farmers to plant crops this year and to give them confidence in the future of their industry”, he would work to deliver a €100 per hectare payment for every horticulture and tillage farmer that puts seed in the soil for the 2024 harvest year.
“My department is considering the next steps, including the state aid and other approvals and the identification of appropriate funding. I am committed to our potato sector and despite the constraints of my existing budget, I will work to deliver this support for these farmers,” Mr McConalogue said.
The IFA’s Sean Ryan said that this level of funding is a “kick in the teeth” when it’s “costing €5,000 to grow an acre of potatoes” currently.
Mr Ryan warned of the reducing number of potato growers in Ireland.
“Back around 10 years ago we had 700 growers, we’re down to 160 growers now,” he said.
“Most of the smaller growers have got out. You’d just be afraid of the potato sector ending up like the veg sector.”
One of the biggest issues is below-cost selling, Mr Ryan said.
Seeing their produce selling for so little at times is “disheartening to growers” after they spend all year “nurturing crops and trying to get them in good conditions”.
Mr Ryan said the retailers are “making little of their produce”, and “it is coming back to haunt them now”.
Mr Ryan said that with growers getting planting out of the way, the “next challenge” is looking after the crop against things like blight.
Teagasc this week organised potato crop walks as it warned that cases of blight are beginning to emerge.
Along with covering EU43, a new threat to potatoes in Ireland, the events are featuring new guidelines on controlling blight and developing robust blight control programmes for 2024.
Teagasc crops and potato specialist Shay Phelan said that the identification of the EU43 strain of potato blight in Ireland last year is “potentially one of the most serious developments in potato growing in recent times”.
“This strain is causing many problems in Europe and growers in many countries are struggling to control it,” Mr Phelan said.
“The presence of this strain in the Irish population will result in a significant change in how we approach disease control over the coming years.”
