UP TO 20% OF THE UK CROP STILL IN THE GROUND.

 

As Autumn draws to a close a significant percentage of the UK potato crop remains in the ground. This poses a problem for fryers all over the country. Currently unharvested potatoes are likely not to reach the high standard required for UK fish and chip shops. The fry colours of these potatoes will now be too dark. Therefore, there will less potatoes available that are suitable in store, creating another imbalance between supply and demand. Ex farm prices have doubled since mid-September with further rises expected. This is the last thing everyone was expecting after much better summer growing conditions than last year.

 

Usually in these situations we would look to European potatoes to help supply volume but they’ve experienced the same conditions. In additions to this Poland had an extremely dry Summer, their total production is expected to be 1 million tons below average.

 

The question is will the weather settle down for the next 3 weeks to allow the remaining potatoes to be harvested in to store before the winter sets in?

 

MITCHELL POTATOES LTD 15.11.2019