Mike Neaverson: Potato sector is at tipping point

Having endured a growing season with weather to rival that of the Nevada desert, vegetable yields on the unirrigated silts in this part of the world are going to be about as fulfilling as a drive-through Elvis wedding.  

See also: Mike Neaverson – monster electricity bill for potato storage

So as someone who thinks that even buying a lottery ticket ought to be regarded as a tax on hope, I’m questioning why on earth I should gamble hundreds of thousands of pounds on planting next year’s spuds.

About the author

Mike Neaverson

News opinion writer

Mike Neaverson is a potato grower and independent agronomist from South Lincolnshire. After a spell in farm management, he set up his own business in 2017 and is also heavily involved with his family’s 300ha arable farm.

Read more articles by Mike Neaverson

Chips on the table then. After this season, things in the potato sector are going to have to change. 

In the supermarket sector at least, the big players have become masters at manipulating demand to fit available supply.

The average supermarket customer doesn’t notice when pack size drops from 2.5kg to 2kg, for example. But we farmers certainly do when our collective orders drop by 20%. 

Couple this sort of thing with an import/export trade, and the generally reducing and increasingly volatile demand for our produce, and farmgate prices have remained unsustainably low, regardless of the national yield, for a number of seasons.

But we have now reached a tipping point and, as it stands, the odds are not in our favour. Through a combination of pesticide withdrawals and now massive inflation, I reckon that the cost of producing a tonne of late-stored potatoes has increased by well over £100/t since 2019 alone. That is staggering.

It’s time, therefore, to play our hand.

Unless contracts for 2023 are released early enough, and offer a sufficient uplift, then there will be an awful lot of good potato land in the Fens sown with wheat this autumn. 

The industry needs a similar response to that of British Sugar, which must have realised the seriousness of the situation and to its credit has released a sensible contract price months ahead of normal. 

Should growers spin the wheel on potato production again for 2023? None of us have to.

And given the inflationary pressure from the war in Ukraine, growing spuds feels like less of an enjoyable flutter and more of a costly game of Russian roulette.