The UK’s potato sector is massively underselling its £4.5bn contribution to the nation’s economy during discussions with politicians, according to a prominent Scottish policy adviser.

Speaking at a growers’ conference in Dundee, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) reader in economic policy, Steven Thomson, said the sector had not rated highly on the radar when politicians were formulating policy, partly as a legacy of having drawn so little in the way of farm support payments.

But he told the SAC Association of Potato Producers annual conference that the industry needed to raise its profile if it wanted to gain the recognition it deserved.

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“The value of the sector is often bandied about as being worth in the region of £765m a year – but that is simply the price of farmgate sales, with no value being put on the spending generated both upstream and downstream of that point.”

In contrast, Scotland’s beef industry used a figure of £3bn in discussions with the Scottish government, even though the value of farmgate sales was about £950m.

The £3bn figure included the upstream spend on feed, fertilisers and other inputs, while the value added further down the supply chain by abattoirs, processors, butchers and retailers were also factored in.

Mr Thomson admitted that, while estimating upstream costs of fertilisers, power, machinery and haulage for potatoes was easy enough, commercial confidentiality made it more difficult to assess how much was being added downstream.

However, household spend on potato and potato products was a useful proxy.

“While spend by the industry stands close to a total of £1.5bn, deeper analysis shows that a further £3bn is generated beyond the farmgate – putting the sector’s total contribution to the UK economy at closer to £4.5bn.”

Using this figure would make a far greater impression when in discussions with policymakers to support the sector.