Potatoes: 12/06/2018

Ex-farm potato prices reported to the IFA

Comment: The high temperatures continued to dampen potato sales. However, as the week progressed, cooler weather has improved matters somewhat. As expected, demand has certainly improved in the peeling and fresh chip sector and this will continue throughout the summer. The first of the outdoor early crop has appeared on the market this week. This crop was planted at the end of February, but due to the adverse weather, spring yields are disappointing. It is estimated that only 70ha of crop was planted up to the beginning of March and there was a subsequent gap of six weeks until any other significant plantings occurred. As a result, we will see only limited volumes being available to the market up until mid-July. A lot of potato crops, particularly in the southeast and east, are struggling due to the lack of rain, with many areas having had little or no precipitation for six weeks.