Potatoes: 01/05/2018

Ex-farm potato prices reported to the IFA

Comment: In general, potato sales have slowed over the past few weeks, which is typical for the time of year. However, consumption levels remain positive. There are still growers with stock in ambient store, and while this remains the case, it is proving difficult for growers to achieve long overdue price increases. Crop which was left in the ground is either harvested or, unfortunately, in some cases growers have had to abandon it altogether. At this stage, there is certainly a major shortage of top-quality prepack material. Therefore, retailers will have to relax specifications from now until season end. Some headway has been made on planting the 2018 crop, with early varieties now eventually finished four weeks behind schedule. It is estimated that only 20% of the entire potato acreage is planted at this stage, with broken weather still restricting progress.