The yield and quality of potatoes are likely to be down in the autumn harvest, leading potato supplier Albert Bartlett has warned.
The supplier sources potatoes from all over the country and has warned that across all areas “we have been challenged with the dry weather”.
“We will see a huge variation in crops this year depending on how much water you’ve applied as a grower, where in the country you are, and which variety you’re growing,” said Paddy Graham-Jones, group procurement director at Albert Bartlett.
In the supplier’s own farms in the east of England, yields have dropped to as low as eight tonnes an acre due to a lack of irrigation. The average amount is 20 tonnes.
“Some crops received 10 applications of water, so that’s a 30-tonne crop, and the eight-tonne crop is the crop that we had no water to irrigate,” added Graham-Jones.
The supplier said it had been forced to stop harvesting on some of its farms because the soil was so dry that potatoes could not be lifted.
“So we’re now beginning to, where we’ve got water, irrigate the bare land that the potatoes are still in to get enough soil up to cushion the potatoes and to stop them being damaged and bruised,” said Graham-Jones.
Damage in harvesting is more likely when the potatoes have had less water as the water density of the crop goes down, leading to less cushioning. Typically, potatoes are 80% water, but this season some are as low as 70%.
“The higher the dry matter, the more bruising and mechanical damage,” he explained, though these potatoes would be better for crisping or chipping, he added.
In response to this, Albert Bartlett is moving supply around the country in order to make the most of the crop.
This means moving the least damaged potatoes to supermarket packs, with the most damaged sent for processing as “if you’ve got a bit of blemish and mechanical damage on the skin, it’s perhaps not so critical”.
He adds that this model meant the business could “move crop around and not disappoint the grower in terms of overall returns and importantly not disappoint the customer”.
Read more: Drought now a ‘nationally significant incident’ with food supply impacted
However, Graham-Jones warned it was likely that the quality and tonnage for premium lines would be such that imports would be required later in the season.
Scottish farmers have also had to contend with Storm Floris and heavy hail, both of which had impacted potato growth, Graham-Jones said. Wind from the storm “absolutely decimated” crops that were in its path and hail later exacerbated this due to damage done to the top growth in other fields.
“Not only have we had this drought, we’ve had these two bizarre features of the weather at the end of the season and that’s just finished crops off,” he added.
Hot weather also meant storage was more expensive, he said. The early season crop had done quite well as it had done most of its growing before the drought really took hold. However, due to storage costs, some growers had “just had to dump them because they will not be able to recover those additional costs”.
Graham-Jones added that investment would be required to back up the food supply chain, including into reservoirs. He said Albert Bartlett was also carrying out substantial research into new varieties that can grow with limited water, such as those with thicker skins that won’t damage in the same way in harvesting as a thin-skinned potato.
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