Spot potato prices in Britain have climbed after two difficult years, but this summer's heat means stored crops will need careful handling, Farmers Weekly reports from the farm of Steve Edgley in Cambridgeshire, who plans to store up to 5,000 tonnes across five types of store.
The Edgley family grows 200 hectares of potatoes, mainly for the fresh-bag fish and chip shop trade. About three-quarters were irrigated this year, though water ran short on some fields when sluice gates were shut or restricted and ditches dried up. Irrigation and careful nutrient management kept crops green through the drought, which helped the sprout suppressant maleic hydrazide work. "Everything we think is going into store will get maleic hydrazide," he says. "The store will show me whether it has worked."
His worry is skin set: with the weather turning he relied only on chemical desiccation, and "in such a stressful year, the crop doesn't take the chemical as well". Smaller and low dry-matter tubers, which bruise more easily, are moved out first.
Early crops go into two 500-tonne bulk stores that normally hold until February. Two ambient-air 1,500-tonne box stores and a refrigerated 1,000-tonne store hold the rest at about 9C, treated with DMN every four to five weeks. Because DMN needs a 30-day gap before sale, he switches to orange oil (Argos) or mint oil before a store is emptied, now about 90% Argos, since mint's lingering smell can hide problems in store.
Contracts kept the business alive through two oversupplied seasons, he says: last year 66% of the crop was on contract at £350 a tonne when the free market averaged £110 to £120. This year contracts were cut to £300, so he contracted less, and free-buy prices averaged about £360 to £380 in September. He would rather prices did not keep soaring: at £700 or £800 a tonne by spring, "the chip shops won't stand that".
Photo: Georg Slickers / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Farmers Weekly
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