It has been a difficult year to grow potatoes and the local harvest is already two to three weeks behind schedule with only around one-third of potatoes harvested, Wilson’s Country CEO Angus Wilson has confirmed.
“Last Friday, I had 150t in store compared to 1,550t and 2,600t in the two previous years. It is worrying,” he told reporters visiting the Co Armagh-based company on Tuesday.
Wilson said that spring planting was delayed by six weeks in NI and across Europe due to poor weather and locally this was followed by a dry period in June which put the plant under stress. That has led to growth cracks, making these potatoes unsuitable for retail packs.
Many growers were ready to start harvest around the third week of September, but ground conditions have been very difficult, while the warm and wet conditions are perfect for microbial activity leading to concerns about losses in storage.
“Ireland is 10 to 20% below average yields and there will be waste on top of that,” added Wilson’s managing director Lewis Cunningham. He expects potato supplies across Europe to be tight this season, not helped by the fact there was no carryover of stock from last year.
Amid those tight supplies, prices to growers are on an upward curve, but that will need to be matched by others in the supply chain. “Sustainable prices at retail level will be required to get the entire potato sector through the next few months,” said Cunningham.
Retail
At retail level, Cunningham said the market remains “fairly healthy” with consumption remaining above pre-COVID-19 levels as more people work (and cook) from home.
The largest customers for Wilson’s Country remain the major retailers, with around 55% of potatoes sold in pre-packs. Just over one-third go to food service, with Wilson’s a key supplier to Sysco Foods, an American-based company with significant expansion plans in Ireland – Sysco is currently building a new distribution centre at Nutt’s Corner in Antrim.
Wilson’s Country also service the chip market and have recently moved into the supply of mash, with two new products just launched in Tesco NI outlets and a contract secured to supply the Hastings Group of hotels. In total, Wilson’s handle 850t of potatoes each week.
Investment in AD
In future, Wilson’s Country will be redirecting potato peelings into its own anaerobic digestion (AD) facility situated at its site on the Carn Road. The £2m facility is initially 250kW in size and is expected to supply 60% of the company’s electricity needs when it becomes fully operational at the end of November. Other feedstock will include grass silage and cattle slurry.
Longer term, Angus Wilson is open to adding technology to upgrade the biogas to biomethane and injection into the gas grid and potentially looking at processing digestate so it can be used as a replacement for artificial fertiliser.
One of the main drivers for that is the pressure coming from customers to measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the business and ultimately within the supply base.
“Customer wise the environment was not mentioned a few years ago, now it is very much high priority. It is a huge topic,” suggested Lewis Cunningham. The company now have a full-time sustainability manager in place.