Reduced areas planted and reduced yields have led to what look like tightened supplies of potatoes this year – though it is too early to call for sure, according to Teagasc tillage crop and potato specialist Shay Phelan.
Phelan was discussing how 2018 has been for potato growers with presenter Claire Mc Cormack on tonight’s episode of FarmLand.
The Teagasc specialist highlighted that Irish supplies are “on a knife-edge” at present, as the main harvest gets underway, with about 25% of the crops harvested so far – some three weeks later than normal.
Outlining issues on this year’s harvest, Phelan said: “The concerns are, to start off with, we’re about 1,000ha less in terms of area planted this year than we would have been last year, and we had plenty of supply in 2017.
“But the reduced area and reduced yields that we’re likely to experience – although we’re not fully sure what way yields are going to turn out just yet – the likelihood is that supplies will be tight.
We probably will have enough to supply the market, but it’s kind of on a knife-edge really at the moment. And it’s a similar story really across Europe, so bringing in imports from across Europe is not going to solve the problem either because they are going to be very, very expensive.
The expert added that the word from different sectors across Europe suggested that some of the supplies for the chipping trade are becoming very expensive.
However, he highlighted that, although a concern, it is too early to call yet.
“It is a concern at the moment; I’d say it’s too early just yet to say how it’s going to turn out, but it certainly would be a concern.
“The year that’s been in it, it’s probably one of the most difficult and trying years that a lot of potato farmers would have had for quite a while.
He added that, for the main crop, most were about three weeks to a month later than normal, starting in late April and early May.
“That, we knew, was going to have an impact coming to this time in the season in terms of yield and harvest date. And obviously then the big problem during the season was the drought and the really high temperatures that we experienced in early July.”
The Teagasc specialist noted that a lot of crops became dormant and stopped growing during the really hot weather, leading to disorders in crops around the country with secondary growth in plants.
In some cases, we saw the potatoes actually in the ground sprouting again, as if they were in seed again, so they were trying to produce even more tubers in the ground.
“So that was an issue that was widespread across the country, but luckily we were able to tackle that just as it was starting to happen; so a lot of crops, the losses weren’t as big as we thought they were going to be.”
Coming back to the present, Phelan said that harvesting would normally begin in early October but, due to the year, things are only really starting to kick off now in the last week in October for most farmers.
He outlined the big concern with this, highlighting that, should the weather turn for the worse, harvesting in bad conditions would mean a lot of losses.
So it’s been a really trying year on growers so far – and it’s not finished yet.
When asked if the increased price of potatoes would be enough to compensate farmers for losses, Phelan said that, while a price increase is welcome, costs have well increased also.
“I was talking to a couple of growers around the country who have had to put out extra irrigation this year.
“Normally, they wouldn’t irrigate very much at all, but they’ve had to put out maybe five – between five and 10 applications of water throughout the season.
“And that’s very expensive work, especially if you have to dig, bore holes or drill wells or whatever it is to do that – and never mind buying the equipment to do so.
“So the price increase; yes, it will be a huge help to farmers – there’s no doubt about that. Whether it’ll be enough to put them in profit depends on the year and how the crop responded,” he said.