The 2023 potato harvest has been branded as the “worst in recent memory” by the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) National Potato Committee chair Seán Ryan.
He said that for many growers this year’s harvest is “rapidly turning into a salvage operation” because potato drills are submerged due to recent flooding.
“As it stands around 60% of crop remains to be harvested. Sizeable losses have occurred already which are likely substantially increase as we progress through the harvest,” Ryan said.
Potato harvest
According to Met Éireann some weather stations have already exceeded the average annual total rainfall while others close to it.
The recent heavy rain has washed clay off of the top of drills which exposes the crop to potential frost damage.
“A few hard frosts at this point will wipe out entire crops,” Ryan said.
“Now that we are in November, we are in extremely difficult territory with this much crop left to be harvested,” he said.
The IFA Potato Committee chair explained that the 2023 potato season was “always going to be a late year as crops were planted very late due to weather conditions in the springtime”.
Maturation was slow and crops were a minimum of six weeks behind schedule before the current weather conditions kicked in.
“This year, potato growers were forced to harvest in reverse due to weather conditions. Dry fields were harvested first leaving the wetter ground to be harvested now.
“Very little potatoes have been harvested into stores to date as the market absorbed a lot of crops as they were harvested,” Ryan said.
Unfortunately, with further heavy rain being forecast, there appears to be no let up for growers in the near future.
“Growers will not be able absorb the financial hit if crops are lost due to weather damage and are going to need to be supported if we want to ensure the medium-term survival of the sector,” Ryan said.