Potatoes: 20/06/2017

Ex-farm potato prices reported to the IFA

Comment: The fine weather over the past week has stifled demand for potatoes somewhat. However, demand remains adequate for the available supplies. With most of the premier gone from the south and southeast, growers in the Dublin area are now harvesting their first earlies. The supply of Queens has improved. However, once the early plantings are finished, there will be a gap in the market until the March plantings are fit for harvest. Buyers are reporting that customers are favouring the Irish earlies over imported product due to the superior eating quality of the home-produced potatoes. In Europe, many countries, and in particular Belgium, are suffering from drought conditions. Despite the increase in acreage, production volumes could be severely affected and this was reflected in the sudden increase of the European futures price by over €40/t at the end of last week.