The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) is attributing the recent increase in retail potato prices to meetings the organisation has held with the Irish multiples.
IFA Potato Committee chair, Sean Ryan, commented:
“LIDL and ALDI are the only retailers yet to come on board. Right now, 7.5kg packs of Rooster are selling for around €8 in most shops.
“The reality is that Irish potato growers are totally dependent on the retailers delivering a realistic farmgate price.”
According to Ryan, potatoes have never represented better value for money.
“A 7.5kg bag of potatoes will feed an average family for a week. This works out at around €1/day. There is no other food option that can deliver in such a meaningful way for consumers,” he stressed.
Potato scarcity?
Ryan went on to scotch rumours that there could be a scarcity of Irish potatoes in the run-up to Christmas.
“This is not the case,” he said. “The current stories in the press of potatoes being scarce relate to the media in the UK.
“There’s little doubt that Irish potato supplies will come under pressure towards the end of the season, but there are enough supplies now in store to keep the Irish sector supplied through until the March/April period of next year.”
Meanwhile, growers are confirming that 10% of the 2023 potato crop remains in the ground.
“We are looking at a spring harvest, where these potatoes are concerned,” Sean Ryan commented.
“And, no doubt, a significant proportion of these potatoes may not be fit for purpose at that stage. So this is the big unknown as potato growers look towards the early months of 2024.”
By common consent, all potato Irish growers will be glad to see the end of 2023. It has been a year of continuous challenge.
A late planting season was followed by a period of drought during May and June. After that, the heavens opened with ground conditions deteriorating accordingly.
The end result was potato crops coming under pressure throughout the entire 2023 growing season. In tandem with this, growers were coping with historically high input costs.
As a consequence, margins within the potato sector have come under very strong pressure over recent weeks.
And it is the same story in the UK and the EU. Farmgate prices for Golden Wonder have already broken through the €1,000. There is growing speculation that Rooster prices could follow suit.